NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 
132 
lores across the ear-coverts), and top of head more or less spotted, or 
streaked, with the same. Adult. Upper parts plain. Young. Feathers of 
the upper parts bordered terminally with white. Sexes alike (?). 
Wing, 17.50-21.50 ; tail, 8.70-10.50; culmen, 1.25-1.40; tarsus, 2.00- 
2.40; middle toe, 1.70-2.00. Second and third quill longest. Breast 
often entirely without spots; top of head and nape usually with dark 
streaks predominating. Tail with six to seven narrow black bands, 
continuous across both webs. Sab. Northern Hemisphere of the 
Ne w W orld . ( Fish- Hawk. ) v ar . car olinensis. 
Genus NATJCLERUS, Vigors. (Page 124.) 
N. forficatus. Head, neck, entire lower surface, and band across the rump, im- 
maculate snowy-white'; upper surface plain polished blackish, with varying lights of dark 
purplish-bronze (on the back and shoulders) and bluish-slaty, with a green reflection 
in some lights. Young , with dusky shaft-streaks on the head and neck, and the 
feathers of the upper parts margined with white. Wing, 15.40-17.70; tail, 12.50- 
14.50; culmen, .70 -.80; tarsus, 1.00-1.30; middle toe, 1.15-1.20. Hob. The whole 
of tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate America. Accidental in England. ( Swal- 
low-tailed Hawk or Kite.) 
Genus EL ANUS, Savigny. (Page 124.) gg 
Above pearly-ash, becoming white or whitish on the head and tail, with a 
large black patch covering the lesser-covert region. Lower surface continuous 
pure white ; a black spot on front of, and partly around, the eye. 
E. leucurus. A large black patch on the lining of the wing, restricted to 
the primary coverts. Lesser coverts, on outer surface, not conspicuously 
bordered anteriorly with white. First quill very much shorter than the 
third ; second quill longest ; first shorter than, equal to, or longer than the 
fourth. 
Above deep bluish-ash, with the inner webs of the secondaries 
appreciably paler, sometimes abruptly white. Wing, 11.60 - 12.65 ; 
tail, 6.80 - 7.80 ; culmen, .65 - .80 ; tarsus, 1.20 - 1.50 ; middle toe, 
.94-1.20. Hob. Tropical and subtropical America. {Black-shoul- 
dered Kite.) var. leucurus. 
Genus ICTINIA, Vieillot. (Page 124.) 
Adult. Uniform plumbeous, becoming lighter (whitish) on the head, and 
darker (blackish) on the primaries and tail. Inner webs of primaries with more 
or less rufous. Young. Beneath whitish, striped longitudinally with brownish ; 
above much variegated ; tail with several narrow whitish bauds. 
I. mississippiensis. Adult. Wings lighter than the tail, the seconda- 
ries hoary whitish ; inner webs of primaries with only obscure spots of 
rufous, the outer webs with a very obscure stripe of the same. Tail wholly 
black. Young. Stripes beneath reddish-umber ; lower tail-coverts with 
longitudinal shaft-streaks of the same. Second to third quills longest ; first 
m 
