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FAMILY II. FALCONING. FALCONINE BIRDS. 
Bill short, stout, cerate ; upper mandible with the tip elongated and 
decurved ; lower mandible rounded and thin-edged at the end. Head rather 
large, broadly ovate, feathered. Eyes large, with prominent superciliary 
ridges. External aperture of ears of moderate size, and simple. Tarsus 
longer than the middle toe ; claws very large, much curved, extremely 
acute. Plumage full and generally compact. Wings very long and broad. 
(Esophagus excessively wide and dilated into a crop ; stomach large, some- 
what membranous, its muscular fasciculi being placed in a single series ; 
intestine short and rather wide, or very long and slender ; coeca extremely 
small. The young, when fledged, generally having the lower parts longi- 
tudinally streaked. Eggs from two to six, ovate, or roundish. Nest on 
trees, rocks, or the ground. 
Genus I.— POLYBORUS, Vieill. CARACARA. 
Bill large, high, rather long, much compressed ; cere large, covered with 
hair-like feathers ; upper outline convex and declinate to the edge of the 
cere, then decurved; edge of upper mandible slightly arched and nearly 
even, tip of lower compressed and rounded. Nostrils elliptical, oblique, in 
the anterior part of the cere near the ridge. Eyelids and space anterior to 
the eye denuded, as is the skin over the crop. Feet rather long ; tarsi 
anteriorly scutellate, sharp-edged and scaly behind ; toes rather long, 
broadly scutellate, the first much shorter than the second ; claws long, little 
curved, that of the middle toe being only slightly arched. WingS long, 
rounded, the third and fourth quills longest, the first five having the inner 
web cut out. Tail rather long, rounded. 
THE CARACARA EAGLE. 
POLYBORUS BRAZILIENSIS, Gm. 
PLATE IV. 
I was not aware of the existence of the Cai'acara or Brazilian Eagle in uio 
United States, until my visit to the Floridas in the winter of 1831. On trie 
