CUCKOO FALCON. 
105 
prototype of tlie liook-hilled kites of tropical Ame- 
rica, that hut for its bill, it would he impossible to 
distinguish the two genera, while both are disguised 
in the plumage of the cuckoos ; or that family they 
both represent in their respective circles. By the 
discovery of this beautiful bird, we can thus trace 
four of the sub-genera or primary divisions of the 
true falcons ; the fifth, which wiE represent the 
buzzards, alone remaining to be determined. 
The general form of this remarkable type may he 
thus briefly described. It has the long wings of a 
buzzard, the tips reaching to within two inches and 
a half of the extremity of the tail : the three first 
quills are graduated, and slightly sinuated in the 
middle of the inner web ; the tail is broad and quite 
even ; the hill is very like that of the genus Cy- 
mindis, being broad and compressed, hut the tip is 
less elongated and the two teeth on each side are 
situated near the tip, as in aU the typical falcons ; 
the nostrEs, as in Cymindis, are closed, and merely 
open by a transverse slit ; the feet also are in like 
manner simEar to those of the group this type ob- 
viously represents ; the tarsus is so short, that it is 
inferior in length to the middle toe, and is feathered 
half way down, the remaining portion being covered 
with irregularly shaped somewhat hexagonal scales ; 
the soles of the feet are remarkably broad, and all 
the three toes are cleft to their base ; the outer toe 
is shorter than the inner one, and is only as long as 
the hinder, leaving out the measurement of the 
claws. The whole form, in short, is precisely that 
