304 ON THE CLASSIFICATION OP BIRDS. 
must not suppose that a bird wherein two, or perliaps 
only one, of these marks can be traced, is therefore 
not an Accipiter. On the contrary, he must expect to 
find birds which blend the characters of the two groups 
so equally, that he will be compelled to consult the sub- 
genera before he can determine the name of his speci- 
men : nay, it frequently happens that an aberrant form 
will retain but one of those distinctions of the group 
with which it is naturally associated. This, in fact, we 
have seen in Gampsont/ai Swainsonii, and it is equally 
apparent in the subgenus, which appears to represent 
that bird in the circle of Accipiter, named by M. Vieillot 
Ictinea. The best known species, Ictinea plnmbea*, 
from its very long wings and short even tail, is obvi- 
ously a fissirostral type ; but whether it lielongs to this 
genus, or naturally fills the station we have for the pre- 
sent given to Gampsonyx, must be left for future deter- 
mination. Such questions, indeed, — where those types 
which have been personally examined are few and far be- 
tween — should always be left open for future discovery. 
The bird of which we are now' speaking is unquestion- 
ably an aberrant form, either actually entering the circle 
of Falco, or the means by which that circle is united on 
one side to Accipiter, or on the other to Buteo. It is a 
buzzard in its wings, an Aster in its feet, and as much of 
a hawk as of a falcon in its bill. {fiy. 97-) This latter 
character, in short, decides its 
intimate connection to Falco : 
the half festooned tooth and 
its feet lead us to consider 
it as an aberrant Accipiter, 
while, in its very long wings, 
it may be said to have an af- 
finity to Lophotes. On these 
considerations we place Ictinea, provisionally, as the 
first subgenus of Accipiter, as a medium of connecting 
Lophotes with the accipitrine falcons. On the typical 
subgenus Accipiter, whose characteristics have been 
• Falco plmnbeus Lath. MHvus Cenchrus Vieil. 
