290 
ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS. 
festooned or sinuated on the margin ; while the wings, 
although rounded like those of the hawks, are consider- 
ably longer. Greater precision , however, will result from 
characterising each division of this aberrant circle sepa- 
rately. The eagles form the ge- 
nus Aquila 94.), and are 
known by having the longest bills 
of the whole family. Their form 
is heavy, their size large, their 
feet short and thick, and their 
wings only of very moderate 
length. Following these are the 
buzzards — the genus Buteo — 
where the body and legs are 
slender, the ears large, the bill 
short and weak, and the wings' 
uncommonly long. To the birds 
of the third and last division 
of the aberrant groups we shall retain the English name 
of Kites. They differ very little from the buzzards, 
excepting in one very remarkable particular — the ex- 
treme shortness of their tarsi, — a character, however, 
so obvious, that it renders the birds of this genus more 
easy of determination than almost any of the entire 
family. The type of this group, now first characterised, 
is the genus Cijmindis; for the common European kite, 
AAUvus ictinus (Savigny), does not, according to our 
views, strictly lielong to the group, but merely forms a 
passage to it from the buzzards. This error, as we 
conceive, in overlooking the true distinction of one of 
the great divisions of this family, has, in all probability, 
resulted from examining prints and descriptions instead 
of actual specimens. 
(S'iO.) We shall not, in this stage of our exposition, 
attempt to prove that the above divisions form a circular 
series, because this could not be done without anticipating 
those details which will be stated in their proper place. 
Nor is this altogether necessary. All ornithologists 
agree in placing the hawks next in rank to the owls. 
