FALCONID^ — BUTEONIN^: BUZZAMDS. 
549 
a small but stout Buteo, with ample wings and tail, very different from any of the foregoing^ 
and easily recognized by its size and proportions, aside from color. A large 9 resembles a 
small ^ B. lineatus in some respects, but the diflFerence is too great to require detailed com- 
parison. Nesting nowise peculiar ; eggs 3-5, 2.00 X l.()0, heavily marked. 
883, 883. B. brachyu'rus. ^paxvs, l>r(ichiis, tihoit ; ovpd, oiira, Vdil.). FuLiGiNOUS Buzzard. 
liesembling B. abbreviatits in being blackish or fuliginous all over, but entirely another bird, 
belonging to a different section of the genus. Only three primaries are abruptly emarginate on 
the inner web, though the next one is sinuate. Adult 9 ^ Color fuliginous, or dark umber- 
brown, nearly uniform, but barred on the under wing- and tail-coverts with white, and the 
feathers of the hind head and nape Heecy-white at base ; the color blackening on the exposed 
surfaces of the primaries, the inner webs of which are extensively whitened, with the usual 
dark bars ; little white, however, on the secondaries, excepting the inner ones, most of them 
being simply spaced gray or light brown between their dark bars. Tail-pattern as usual in 
young hawks of this genus, there being numerous (6 or 8 exposed) blackish and lighter grayish 
bars alternating, the subterininal one of each broadest, the whole tail tipped with grayish- 
white; the inner webs of all the feathers excepting the central pair whitening in the spaces 
between the dark bars. Length IG.OO; wing 18.00; tail 7-00; tarsus 2.00. (Described from 
No. 12,117, Mus. Smiths. Inst., from Mazatlan, Mex., agreeing with 5. fuUginosus Scl., P. Z. S., 
1858, p. 356; Tr. Z. S., 1858, p. 267, pi. Ixii ; a bird supposed to be the young of the same 
is B. oxypterus, Cass., Pr. Phila. Acad., 1855, p. 283; both are treated as a variety of B. 
swainsoni by Ridgway, Hist. N. A. B., iii, 1874, p. 266 ; but are now supposed to be melanistic 
adult, and young, of a good species, probably B. hrachyurus Vieill., which normally has the 
face and most under parts white.) Mexican border, Florida, and southward. 
181. ARCHIBU'TEO. (Lat. arc/i?'-, from Gr. dpxos, archos, a leader, chief; buteo, a buzzard.) 
Hare-footed Buzzards. Chars, of Buteo proper, but tarsi feathered in front to the toes, 
naked and reticulate along a strip behind. Wings very long; 3d and 4th quills longest; 1st 
shorter than 7th; 4 or 5 emarginate on inner webs. A small group, well marked by the char- 
acter of the feet. The species are among the largest of the buzzard-hawks, but are rather dull 
heavy birds, preying upon humble quarry, especially small quadrupeds, reptiles, and insects. 
Analysis of Species 
Below, white, variously dark-marked, and < ften with abroad black abdominal zone, but generally no 
ferruginous ; in melanotic state, whole plumage nearly uniform blackish. . lagopus sancti-johannis 525 
Below, pure white, scarcely or not marked, excepting that the legs are rich rufous with black bars, 
in marked contrast ; above, varied with dark brown, chestnut and white ; quills brown, with much 
white ; tail silvery-ash and white, clouded with brown or rufous ferrugineus 526 
525, A. lago'pus sancti-johan'nis. (Gr. \aya)novs, lagopous, hare-footed ; Lat. sancti-johannis^ 
of St. John, Newfoundland. Fig. 382.) American Rough-legged Buzzard. "Black 
Hawk." Adult 9- Too variable in plumage to be concisely described. In general, the 
whole plumage with dark brown or blackish and light brown, gray, or whitish, the lighter 
colors edging or barring the individual feathers ; tendency to excess of the whitish on the head, 
and to the formation of a dark abdominal zone or area which may or may not include the tibiae ; 
usually a blackish anteorbital and maxillary area. Lining of wings extensively blackish. Tail 
usually white from the base for some distance, then with dark and liglit barring. The inner 
webs of the flight-feathers extensively white from the base, usually with little if any of the 
dark barring so prevalent among butecmine hawks. From such a light and variegated plum- 
age as this, the bird varies to more or less nearly uniform blackish, in which case the tail is 
usually barred several times with white. Our lighter-colored birds are not fairly separable 
from the normal European A. lagopus ; but our birds average darker, and their frequent mel- 
anism does not appear to befall the European stock. But in any plumage the rough -leg is 
known at a glance from any Buteo by the feathered shanks ; while the peculiar coloration of 
