RAPTORES. 



91 



Form. — Bill rather large and strong, with the cere and apertures of the 

 nostrils large; upper mandible with a large rounded lobe, tip attenu- 

 ated, and very acute ; lower mandible rather small, somewhat flat- 

 tened and rounded at its tip. Wings moderate, with the first primary 

 short, and the fourth longest; third, fourth, and fifth primaries sinu- 

 ated on their external webs, which, in all the primaries, are wide ; 

 secondaries emarginated at their tips, and with their shafts slightly 

 prolonged or mucronate. Tail rather short, composed of twelve 

 feathers of nearly uniform length ; tarsi and feet moderate. 



Dimensions. — Adult male. Total length (of skin), from tip of bill 

 to end of tail, about twelve inches ; wing eight inches; tail six inches; 

 tarsus two and one-fourth inches. Adult female rather lara-er. 



Colors. — Adult male. Head, body, wings, and tail above, uniform 

 light bluish-cinereous ; throat white ; entire plumage of the under sur- 

 face of the body, tibia, and narrow collar encircling the neck behind, 

 pale brownish-red, tinged with ashy, and deepest on the collar around 

 the neck ; under tail-coverts white, slightly tinged with the same brown- 

 ish-red of the other plumage of the under parts. Under surflice of the 

 external tail-feathers very pale, nearly white ; others the same on their 

 inner webs. Inner coverts of the wings white, and all the quills very 

 pale on their inferior surfaces. Bill and claws bluish-black; cere, eye- 

 lids, and tarsi gamboge-yellow ; irides orange. 



Young male and young female. Entire plumage of the upper parts 

 of the head, body, wings, and tail umber-brown ; many of the feathers 

 on the back and wings edged and narrowly tipped with ferruginous, 

 and; on the neck behind, white at their bases. Throat white ; nearly 

 all the feathers having very narrow, longitudinal, dark lines ; breast, 

 abdomen, flanks, and under coverts of the tail white ; every feather 

 longitudinally striped with umber-brown, broad, and inclined to Ibrm 

 rounded spots on the breast, and transverse stripes on the flanks, slight 

 on the under coverts of the tail. Plumage of the tibia pale brownish- 

 red, with transverse stripes of a deeper shade of the same color. Tail 

 above umber-brown, very pale, and tinged with reddish on the edges 

 of the inner webs of the feathers, and with about ten to twelve trans- 

 verse bands of brownish-black, and narrowly tipped with pale reddish- 

 white ; inferior surface of the tail nearly white, tinged with brownish- 



