28 
ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 
transverse bars. Under surface . — Chin almost white ; throat and breast very 
pale ochre yellow, with narrow brown lines on the shaft of the feathers, which 
expand into large marks on the sides of the upper part of the breast, and into 
regular spots on those of the belly. Lining of wing white, with brown 
spots on the feathers near their tips, like on those of the belly. Thighs 
very pale ochre yellow, with transverse bars of pale brown, appearing like 
inverted wedge-formed marks, with the apex on the shafts. Under tail- 
coverts almost white ; under side of tail pale gray, with darker gray bars on 
the inner side of shafts. Bill blueish black, with base of lower mandible and 
part of upper yellowish. Tarsi pale yellow. 
Form. — Fourth primary very little longer than either the third or fifth, which are 
equal. First nearly equal to the eighth. Extremity of wing when folded 
reaching within two inches and a half of the end of the tail. 
In. 
Total length . . . . . . 23 
Wing when folded . . . . . 15j 
Tail 9£ 
Tarsi 
Middle toe from joint to tip of claw . 
From extremity of beak to within nostril . 
Habitat, Santa Cruz, Lat. 50° S. Patagonia, {April.') 
In. 
H 
3 
JL 
Mr. Gould remarks that “this species has all the characters of a true Buteo, 
and will rank as one of the finest of this well defined group. In size it rather 
exceeds the Common Buzzard of Europe, which in its general style of colouring it 
somewhat resembles.” 
Sub-Fam.— FALCONINA, Vig. 
Falco femoralis. Temm. 
Falco femoralis, Temm. PI. Col. 121 male ; and 343 adult male. 
Spix, Av. Sp. Nov. 1. p. 18. 
This specimen was shot in a small valley on the plains of Patagonia, at Port 
Desire, in Lat. 47° 44'. It builds its nest in low bushes, and the female was sitting 
on the eggs in the beginning of January. Egg, 1*8 of an inch in longer diameter, 
and 1-4 in shorter ; surface rough with white projecting points ; colour nearly uni- 
form dirty “ wood brown,” thickly freckled with rather a darker tint ; general 
appearance, as if it had been rubbed in brown mud. M. D’Orbigny supposed 
that Latitude 34° was the southern limit of this species ; we now find its range 
three hundred and thirty miles further southward. The same author states that 
this falcon prefers a dry open country with scattered bushes, which answers to 
the character of the valleys, in the plains near Port Desire. 
