WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 
13 
2. FALCO DISPAR, BONAPARTE. WHITE TAILED HAWK. 
BONAPARTE, PLATE XI. FIG. I. 
This beautiful hawk, which we recently discovered 
to be an inhabitant of North America, is so strikingly 
similar to the black- winged hawk ( Falco melanopterus *) 
of the Old Continent, that we have hitherto considered 
them as identical, contrary to the opinion of Yieillot, 
whose authority, it is true, could in this case be of little 
weight, as he had not seen the species, but like many 
others had merely given it a name ; his sole knowledge 
of it being derived from the work of D’Azara. We 
have now yielded only to the decision of Temminck, 
(who has lately introduced the young into his Planches 
Coloriees ;) but not without much reluctance, especially 
as that distinguished ornithologist has evidently not 
been at the trouble of comparing the two species; 
otherwise, he would certainly not have omitted noticing 
their affinities and differential characters ; since in the 
history of species so closely allied as these two, the 
differential characters are of more importance and 
utility than the most laboured descriptions. 
This comparison we have carefully instituted between 
* Falco melanopterus, Daud. Orn. 2, p. 152, Sp. 124. Lath. 
Ind. Suppl. p. 6. Sp. 16. 
Falco Sonninensis, Lath. Ind. Suppl. p. 12, Sp- 38. 
Elanus cccsius, Savigmy, Ois. d'Egyp. p. 98, pi. 2, f. 2* 
Vieill. Nouv. Piet, d' Hist. Nat. 8. p. 240, (now Elanoides . ) 
Elanus melanopterus, Leach, Zool. Misc. 3, p. 4, pi. 122. 
Vigors, Pescr. Austral. Eirds, in Tr. Lin. Soc. 15, p. 185. 
j Le Blac, Le Vaillant, Ois. d'Afr. 1, p. 147, pi. 36, male, 37, 
young male. 
Black- winged falcon, Lath. Syn. Suppl. 2, p. 28, Sp. 23. 
Sonnini's falcon, Lath. Syn. Suppl. 2, p. 52, Sp. 59. 
The inspection of original drawings, in a collection that Mr 
Gray, of the British Museum, was kind enough to shew me lately 
in London, has enabled me to add to these already numerous 
synonyms, Falco axillaris, Lath. Ind. Suppl. ( Circus axillaris, 
Vieill. ! ) from New Holland. 
