CHAPTER IV

NEORNITHES CARINATAE _CONTINUED_

BRIGADE I–LEGION II (PELARGOMORPHAE). ORDERS: CICONIIFORMES–ANSERIFORMES– FALCONIFORMES

ORDER V. CICONIIFORMES.

The Order Ciconiiformes is a somewhat unwieldy assemblage consisting mainly of Water-birds, which may be classed under the Sub-Orders STEGANOPODES, ARDEAE, CICONIAE, and PHOENICOPTERI. Of these the first contains the _Phaëthontidae_ or Tropic-birds, the _Sulidae_ or Gannets, the _Phalacrocoracidae_ or Cormorants and Darters, the _Fregatidae_ or Frigate-birds, and the _Pelecanidae_ or Pelicans; the second the _Ardeidae_ or Herons and Bitterns, and the _Scopidae_ with the Umbrette; the third the _Ciconiidae_ or Storks and Wood-Ibises, and the _Ibididae_ or true Ibises and Spoon-bills; while the fourth comprises the _Phaenicopteridae_ or Flamingos, and the extinct genus _Palaelodus_, for which Dr. Gadow recognises a separate family _Palaelodidae_. Among these the greatest affinity to the _Procellariiformes_ is exhibited by the _Steganopodes_, whereas the _Phoenicopteri_ are so closely allied to the _Anseriformes_ that not a few writers prefer to include them in that Order.

The STEGANOPODES are aquatic and chiefly marine birds, so far homogeneous in structure that the details may well be set forth in common; while in some points they bear a great resemblance to the _Cathartidae_.[73] Each Family contains a single genus, except the _Phalacrocoracidae_, where _Phalacrocorax_ and _Plotus_ may be considered the equivalents of Sub-families.

The sternum is long, especially in _Sula_, while the large head and short thick neck of _Phaëthon_ and _Fregata_ may be contrasted with the small head and remarkably long neck of _Phalacrocorax_, and still more of _Plotus_; _Sula_ and _Pelecanus_ being moderate in {71}both respects. The bill, which is more or less compound, is long, pretty straight, and generally compressed: in _Phaëthon_ and _Sula_ it is strong, conical, and pointed; in _Phalacrocorax_ either stout with a long hooked nail, or less robust with the hook at the tip shorter, the sides being scabrous; in _Fregata_ similar, in _Plotus_ slender and tapering, in _Pelecanus_ weak, much flattened, hooked, and scaly. The maxilla is furrowed in _Sula_, _Pelecanus_, and _Phalacrocorax_, with the median part concave in the latter, while the cutting edges of both mandibles are serrated in _Phaëthon_, _Sula_, and _Plotus_. The legs are placed far back, especially in _Phalacrocorax_, the tibiae being partly bare in _Phaëthon_ and _Pelecanus_, but feathered in the other forms, of which _Fregata_ has the clothing continued to the toes. The metatarsus is short, stout, and compressed, that of _Fregata_ being extremely abbreviated, as in the Spheniscidae; it is entirely covered with hexagonal scales, becoming almost reticulated behind, while the toes exhibit distinct transverse scutes in _Phalacrocorax_, and have a similar tendency elsewhere. The hallux, which is somewhat elevated in _Phaëthon_, is turned inwards or forwards, and is connected with the remaining toes by full webs, except in _Fregata_, where the membranes are excised to about half their extent; this unique "Steganopodous" foot giving the name to the whole group. The stout curved claws–weaker in _Fregata_–are of medium length, that of the middle digit being serrated on the inner side in the last named, _Sula_, and _Phalacrocorax_. The wings are long and pointed, reaching their maximum in _Fregata_, their minimum in _Phalacrocorax_, and having a very ample spread in _Sula_ and _Pelecanus_. There are eleven primaries, and from fifteen to twenty-nine incurved secondaries, which may even exceed the former. In _Pelecanus_ the short, broad, roundish tail consists of from eighteen to twenty-four soft acute rectrices, but in the remaining genera the feathers are strong and stiff, being particularly rigid in _Phalacrocorax_ and _Plotus_: _Phaëthon_ has sixteen, which are moderate and graduated, with a long filiform median pair in the adult; _Sula_ and _Phalacrocorax_ from twelve to fourteen in a more or less wedge-shaped formation; _Fregata_ twelve, arranged in a fork; while _Plotus_ has the same number, forming a fan, the webs being very broad and showing curious transverse corrugations in mature birds, found also on the scapulars. The tail is fairly long in the four last {72}mentioned, except in some members of _Phalacrocorax_. The V-shaped furcula ancyloses with the sternum in some of the Sub-Order, but _Fregata_ differs from all other ornithic forms in the fact that the furcula also coalesces with the coracoids at its extremities, while the coracoids again unite firmly with the scapula, producing an almost rigid framework, considered by Professor Newton to be connected with the power which the bird possesses of sustaining itself nearly motionless in the air.[74] The peculiar angular articulation of the long eighth cervical vertebra in _Plotus_, which causes the Z-shaped "kink" in the neck, must also be noticed here.[75] The tongue is rudimentary; the nostrils are pervious in _Phaëthon_, impervious elsewhere, being practically obliterated in adults; the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial, except in _Sula_ and _Pelecanus_, where the usual muscles are entirely absent. The subcutaneous air-cells of _Sula_ are most remarkable. The newly-hatched young are blind and helpless, being naked and covered with blackish skin in _Sula_, _Phalacrocorax_, _Plotus_, and _Pelecanus_, though they soon acquire a white downy coat; in _Phaëthon_ and _Fregata_ they are similarly clothed on breaking the shell. The down of the adults is uniformly distributed, the aftershaft is diminutive or wanting. The gular sacs, horny excrescences on the beak, crests, and so forth, are noted below.

Fam. I. PHAETHONTIDAE.–_Phaëthon aethereus_, _P. flavirostris_, and _P. rubricauda_ are chiefly found in the tropical regions of the south; but the first two species breed about as far north as the tropic of Cancer, while they frequent the West Indies, and occasionally stray to the Eastern United States, or even Newfoundland.[76] The third inhabits the southern seas and the Indian Ocean. All these Tropic- or Boatswain-birds, as they are denominated, have satin-like white plumage–often with a tinge of pink–varied by blackish bars or patches above, and black marks near the eye; the bill is red, or in _P. flavirostris_ yellow, the metatarsi yellowish and the toes chiefly black. In _P. rubricauda_ the long stiff median rectrices are dull red with black shafts and very narrow webs, in _P. flavirostris_ they are pinkish with similar shafts, and in _P. aethereus_ entirely white. The sexes are alike, the young being more irregularly marked and having no long tail-feathers.

The members of this Family are true denizens of the ocean, {73}often met with many hundred miles from land; they will then hover constantly about a vessel, or even alight fearlessly on the rigging. They traverse the air with rapid sweeping flight, accompanied by constant quick pulsations of the wings; at one time soaring aloft to wheel in circles, at another plunging into the water from an immense height, though appearing again in a moment to float upon the surface. Their gait on land is shuffling, while they can hardly rise from level ground; the note is a harsh croak or chatter; the food consists of fish, squids, and other produce of the sea. No nest is made, but a single reddish-brown or buff egg, with spots and frecklings of red-brown, purplish or grey, is deposited in a hole or crevice in a cliff, among rocks, or even in a cavity in a rotten tree, both sexes assisting in incubation.[77] The parents sit very closely, screaming, pecking, and snapping when disturbed; in some places they are habitually caught while breeding, and deprived of the long tail-feathers, which are used for decorations.

[Illustration: FIG. 20.–Tropic Bird. _Phaëthon aethereus._ × ⅛.]

Fam. II. SULIDAE.–_Sula bassana_, the Gannet or Solan Goose, which nests at several stations off the west of Great Britain, in Ireland, and on the well-known Bass Rock, extends thence to Iceland, and down the American coast to Nova Scotia, while it strays to Greenland, and in winter reaches the Gulf of Mexico and northern Africa. The plumage is white, with a buff tinge on the head and neck, and black primaries; the bill is whitish, the feet dusky, and the naked skin round the eye and down the centre of the throat blackish-blue. _S. capensis_ of South Africa and _S. serrator_ of Australia are similar to the above, but the former has the rectrices black, the latter the four median feathers blackish-brown.

{74}[Illustration: FIG. 21.–Gannet. _Sula bassana._ × ⅐.]

The remaining species, often called "Boobies," have the whole lower jaw and throat bare. Of these _S. cyanops_, common in the South Pacific and ranging through the intertropical seas to the Bahamas in summer, is white with sooty-brown remiges, the wing-coverts and the lateral portion of the tail being partly of the same colour; the bill is yellow, the feet are reddish, and the naked parts bluish. _S. leucogaster_, extending from tropical and sub-tropical America over the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans,[78] has the upper parts and chest brown, the remaining lower surface, and occasionally the head and neck, white; the bill is yellow, the feet are greenish or yellowish, the bare skin is tinged with red or yellow. _S. piscator_, also of the intertropical seas, resembles _S. bassana_, but has slate-grey wing-quills, purplish-grey bill, reddish feet and naked parts. _S. variegata_, of the shores of Chili and Peru, is dark grey-brown with white head, neck, and under parts, and white markings above. _S. abbotti_, of Assumption Island, north of Madagascar, is allied to _S. cyanops_. In this Family the sexes are alike, while the young are usually dusky with white streaks and spots; but those of _S. cyanops_ are white below, and those of _S. leucogaster_ and _S. piscator_ chiefly sooty-brown, with {75}grey head, neck, and under surface in the latter. It apparently requires six years to attain the full adult plumage.

Gannets are oceanic birds, only frequenting the land in stormy weather; they traverse very great distances, and the northern species move southward in winter. The flight is easy and powerful, with alternate flapping and sailing motion, the head being carried in a line with the body and the feet drawn up. The food consists of surface-swimming fish, squids, and the like, while the young obtain their nutriment by thrusting their bills into those of the parents, though it is disgorged for them when newly hatched. The prey is chiefly captured by diving, the plunge being made with great velocity from a considerable height and the body being submerged for several seconds; on coming to the surface the bird generally remains quiescent for a short period before again taking to the air, but occasionally swims for a longer period. When diving the wings are kept open until the last moment, and are then quickly closed. Gannets find the same difficulty in rising from a level spot as do Tropic-birds, and are less prone to perch than many other sea-birds. The note is a hoarse reiterated sound or, less commonly, a plaintive cry, much noise being often made by the large colonies when breeding. The nest is a mass of sea-weed and grass, placed on a ledge of some high cliff, on the top of a stack, or even on a low tree; while the eggs–never more than two in number–are occasionally deposited on the bare sandy beach, and are greenish-blue, thickly coated with a white chalky substance, which soon becomes soiled. Incubation lasts about six weeks. The adults, especially in the case of the Boobies, are often absurdly fearless on land, while the female, when on the nest, grunts at an intruder, and pecks or bites sharply. They are frequently caught on shipboard by fixing bits of fish on floating pieces of wood, in which the beak is transfixed by the violence of the plunge; they do not, however, afford palatable food, though in Scotland the Solan Goose is half-roasted and so preserved for eating.

Fam. III. PHALACROCORACIDAE.–The genus _Phalacrocorax_ includes the Cormorants and Shags, birds of similar coloration, which differ chiefly in the brilliancy of their metallic hues and the proportion of white to black or brown in the plumage, the following examples giving a fair idea of the whole.

{76}[Illustration: FIG. 22.–Cormorant. _Phalacrocorax carbo._ × ⅛.]

_P. carbo_, the Common Cormorant, with fourteen rectrices, has the head and neck glossy blue-black, interspersed with white hair-like feathers, the remaining upper parts bronzy-black, the throat white, the bill and feet grey-black. In spring a slight crest adorns the occiput and white patches appear on the thighs. In common with its congeners this species has naked lores, orbital and gular regions, which are here of a yellow colour, becoming redder below the eye; the iris is emerald-green. The skin of the throat is dilatable and forms a pouch for food. It breeds on most of the British coasts, except between the Humber and the Thames, and occasionally inland; while it ranges to Greenland northwards, and thence down the Atlantic to New Jersey in the west, and to North and even South Africa on the east, as well as through Europe and Asia. The Australian and New Zealand _P. novae hollandiae_ is doubtfully distinct. _P. dilophus_, of which several forms occur on the shores and in the interior of North America as far south as Mexico, is not unlike _P. carbo_, but has a tuft of long narrow recurved plumes on each side of the crown in the nuptial dress, which are black, white, or particoloured according to the locality. The bare loral region and gular sac are orange, and no white is visible on the throat or flanks. The splendid _P. pelagicus_, on the contrary, has white flank-patches in addition to white filaments on the neck and rump, the head and {77}neck are violet-black, and a bronzy-purple tinge extends thence to the wings, the naked areas being brownish-red. It ranges from Kamtschatka to Western Mexico, and even winters in North Japan. _P. urile_, of the extreme north of the Pacific, is very similar, but has the gular pouch bluish with red hinder margin, the lores, orbits, and an additional strip of bare skin on the forehead being orange. _P. perspicillatus_, of Bering Island, now considered extinct, is another close ally, in which the filamentous feathers are yellowish and the orbits white. _P. graculus_, the Green Cormorant or Shag, breeding in Britain chiefly on the western side, and occurring rarely on our inland waters, is found in many places along the coasts of West Europe to Morocco and the Mediterranean; it is dark green with black remiges and twelve black rectrices, and metallic hues on the head, neck, and under surface, the irides being green and the bill and feet black, as are the naked regions, which are spotted with yellow. In spring a recurved crest overhangs the forehead. _P. lucidus_, of South, East, and apparently West Africa, differs from the last in having a brown head and nape, and grey tints on the mantle and tail, while the chin and most of the lower parts are white. _P. africanus_ occupies South and East Africa. _P. varius_, of New Zealand, is greenish-black above with grey middles to the dorsal feathers, white cheeks and under surface; the bill is horn-coloured, the feet black, the orbits bluish, the gular skin yellow, with an orange spot before each eye. _P. carunculatus_, of New Zealand, has, according to Sir W. L. Buller,[79] no crest and a white band on the back, but otherwise resembles the crested _P. onslowi_ of the Chatham Islands, and _P. imperialis_ of Chili and Patagonia,[80] two fine iridescent species with the under surface and an alar bar white, the bare papillose skin in front of the eyes, orange-red, and the bill and feet brownish. _P. featherstoni_ of the Chatham Islands, which is remarkable for possessing both an occipital and a frontal crest, is greenish-black and brown above with white filoplumes on the nape, and greyish-white below; the beak being dark brown, the feet orange-yellow, and the naked parts bluish. Similar tufts are met with in _P. punctatus_ of New Zealand, wherein the upper plumage is mainly brown with terminal black spots on the {78}feathers, the thighs show a few white markings, and a broad white stripe reaches from above the eye down each side of the neck, where the coat is somewhat elongated and silky. _P. pygmaeus_, the Pigmy Cormorant, which breeds across South-East Europe and South Asia to Java and Borneo, as well as in North Africa, is greenish-black with greyer mantle, reddish-brown head and neck, and small white spots on the lower surface, the naked parts being black. The sexes in _Phalacrocorax_ are alike, or nearly so. The young are browner above–with little of the characteristic gloss–and brown, or white mottled with brown below, the bill and irides often differing in colour from those of the adult.

The members of this family as a rule frequent salt water, yet not uncommonly breed on inland lakes and swamps, especially in the proximity of trees; they are often to be seen in companies, and are decidedly shy and cautious in most cases. The heavy flight is strong, steady, and rapid, bearing a certain resemblance to that of the Duck-tribe, while the birds experience considerable difficulty in starting, and laboriously flap their wings until fairly launched in the air, when they rise to some height, or skim the waves, as fancy dictates. They swim and dive to perfection, remaining a long time submerged, and indulging in many a turn and twist as they pursue their slippery prey, both wings and feet lending their aid to the performance. Ordinarily a spring precedes the plunge from the surface, but in presence of danger they disappear more quietly. Though the gait on land is an awkward waddle, Cormorants perch with ease on rocks, posts, and limbs of trees, where their upright posture gives them the appearance of black bottles or objects hung out to dry; they are stated, moreover, to be able to cling to the face of a cliff, and certainly can climb among thick vegetation, as in the case of _P. pygmaeus_. Not unfrequently they roost in trees, with the head drawn back upon the shoulders. The food, normally of fish, is varied by crustaceans, or even frogs and newts; the young are fed by regurgitation, and, when old enough, thrust their heads into their parents' bills to help themselves.[81] The note, comparatively seldom heard, is a harsh guttural croak, while the female hisses during incubation, in which she is said to be assisted by the male. The nest, placed {79}in caves, on ledges of cliffs, tops of stacks, or low islands, and less commonly on trees, bushes or reeds, is a mass of sticks, grass, seaweed, rushes and the like, according to situation; the smaller species constructing a slighter platform when the trees are chosen, and a lining of green leaves being occasionally added. Early in spring colonies, often of very large dimensions, are formed by many–but not all–of the species for breeding purposes, the stench from the remains of decaying fish at such spots being decidedly unpleasant. Incubation lasts about four weeks. Cormorants were of old used in England for catching fish, and this has been a regular business from time immemorial in China and Japan; but with us it is a mere sport, the chief exponent of which is now Captain F. H. Salvin, whose chapters on "Fishing with Cormorants" will be read with pleasure by those interested in the subject.[82] The bird rises to the surface to swallow its prey, but a strap round the neck allows it to dispose of the smallest only of its captures, while it is forced by its master to disgorge the remainder before it is rewarded with a portion of the catch.

_Plotus anhinga_, the Snake-bird or Darter of tropical and sub-tropical America, ranging northwards to West Mexico and South Carolina, is glossy greenish-black with beautiful silvery-grey markings on the scapulars and wing-coverts, a broad brown tip to the tail, which becomes white terminally, and long whitish hair-like feathers on the sides of the occiput and neck, merging into a black mane on the nape. The filoplumes are absent in winter, and are inconspicuous in the female, which differs, moreover, in having a grey-buff head, neck, and breast, the latter being divided from the belly by a chestnut band. The young resemble the mother-bird, but are duller and lack the chestnut tint. The peculiar long thin neck and corrugated rectrices have been mentioned above; the plumage is unusually close, and is chiefly composed of small soft feathers of very uniform distribution; the lores, orbits, chin, and throat are naked, the two former being apparently greenish, and the latter, which is moderately dilatable, orange. The bill is olive above and yellow below, the feet mainly olive with yellow webs. Three other species are recognised, but the variability in the amount of rufous in all makes their validity somewhat questionable. They are _P. novae hollandiae_ of Australia, New Zealand, and New Guinea, with a {80}white stripe on the sides of the head and a white border to the gular sac; the almost identical _P. melanogaster_ of the Indian Region, extending to Celebes; and _P. levaillanti_ of the Ethiopian Region–described also from Antioch as _P. chantrii_–which has a rufous crown, buff throat, and chestnut greater wing-coverts.

[Illustration: FIG. 23.–Indian Darter. _Plotus melanogaster._ × ⅕. (From _Nature_.)]

Darters cannot be classed as marine birds, though they frequent inlets of the sea as well as lakes and rivers, where they sun themselves with outspread wings on some stump, rock, tree, or even tuft of rushes, while seldom admitting of a near approach. When disturbed, they circle in the air with the neck drawn back upon the shoulders, as do the Pelicans; but the flight is laboured, and they are much more at their ease in water, where they swim very low, exposing only the head and neck, or even the bill, if danger threatens, and having a very snake-like appearance, as they {81}sway gracefully from side to side in their endeavours to keep the intruder in view. Hardly a ripple follows the prolonged dive, while below the surface the wings are but slightly used, the tail being often expanded, and the feet acting as powerful paddles. On reappearance a fish is generally to be seen grasped in the bill or transfixed by it, the peculiar mechanism of the vertebrae of the neck allowing the head to be darted forward at a moment's notice for the capture;[83] subsequently the prey is jerked up into the air, cleverly caught and swallowed. The food, which seldom varies, is sometimes obtained by the bird standing with the body immersed to waylay the passing shoals; but if Gould is correct in adding frogs, newts, and aquatic insects to the diet, these must be procured very differently. The nest, generally situated over water, is a flat or concave fabric of sticks, lined as a rule with leaves, moss, or roots, and often used for several years in succession. High trees or bushes are indifferently chosen, and colonies are usually, but not invariably, formed, several pairs being accustomed to breed in proximity on the branches. The two to five eggs are greenish-blue with chalky incrustation, like those of Cormorants, though smaller and more delicate. The note is short and hoarse. Both sexes are said to incubate, and to regurgitate food for the young.[84] Jerdon says that the scapulars of the Indian Darter were royal badges among the Khasias. It is tamed by boatmen in Bengal.

Fam. IV. FREGATIDAE.–_Fregata aquila_, the Frigate- or Man-of-War-Bird, the latter of which names is sometimes transferred to the Albatroses and smaller Skuas, is met with throughout the tropical regions, and has even strayed as far north as Nova Scotia. It is blackish-brown with green and purple reflexions; the bill is bluish, the feet are black, the orbits, lores, and pouch–inflated in flight–scarlet. The female is browner above and white below, with pinkish feet and no perceptible pouch; while the young resemble her, but shew some white on the head and neck. _F. minor_, found from Madagascar to Papuasia and North Australia, but seldom beyond these limits, is smaller, with less purple gloss and a white mark on each flank.

{82}[Illustration: FIG. 24.–Frigate Bird. _Fregata aquila._ × ⅛.]

These birds are usually seen singly or in pairs, and are pre-eminently oceanic, seldom coming to land except near the breeding quarters, where they roost on the trees; the normal flight is extremely rapid, graceful, and long-sustained, with sudden deviations from the course, but they often soar until they appear mere specks in the sky, descending thence with great abruptness. At times they float aloft with little apparent movement of the wide-spread wings, alternately opening and shutting the forked tail and inclining the head from side to side, while in hurricanes they fly low before the gale. At rare intervals they are found sitting asleep upon the shore. Flocks frequently pursue the surface-swimming fish, constituting their main aliment, which are seized almost without ruffling the water; squids, small crabs, flying fish, and young turtles being also eaten. To see a Frigate-bird plunge, however, is no uncommon occurrence, and the habit of forcing Terns, Boobies, and the like to disgorge their prey, which is caught before it reaches the waves, must not be forgotten.[85] If secured in an awkward position the captures are tossed up in the air, caught again and swallowed. The note, a harsh croak or cackle, is seldom heard. The nest of small sticks, which the birds tear off upon the wing, is generally in trees or bushes, though occasionally on the ground or on a bare rock; it is often {83}very slight, and almost invariably contains one egg, resembling that of the Cormorant. The young are fed by regurgitation, and both sexes are said to incubate, sitting very closely, and merely snapping at an intruder. The feathers are used for head-dresses in the Pacific Islands.

Fam. V. PELECANIDAE.–_Pelecanus onocrotalus_, the Pelican, of South-East Europe, North-East and South-West Africa, reported also from France, Germany, and Denmark, is white with a rosy or salmon tinge, the primaries being black, and the moderate occipital crest and stiff elongated feathers of the lower fore-neck washed with yellow. The lores and orbits are naked, while an enormous dilatable semi-transparent pouch fills the space between the branches of the lower jaw. According to Mr. Dresser,[86] these parts and a fleshy knob appearing on the forehead in spring are yellow, the bill is bluish-grey with pink sides marked with red, and the feet are also pink. These colours, however, may vary with the season. In this species, and to a certain extent in _P. erythrorhynchus_, the feathering on the forehead ends in a point, but elsewhere is more or less concave anteriorly. Closely allied forms of doubtful validity are _P. minor_, with a somewhat similar range, _P. sharpii_ of West Africa, and _P. mitratus_ of South Africa. _P. crispus_, occupying a slightly more eastern area than _P. onocrotalus_, is distinguished from it by the curled filamentous plumes which overhang the sides of the head, the lack of rosy tints, and the flesh-coloured orbits. _P. erythrorhynchus_ of temperate North America, found in winter down to Guatemala, resembles the last-named, but has a still more pendent nuptial crest, and in the breeding season develops a curious triangular horny excrescence on the middle of the culmen, shed about May. The chest and wing-coverts show a little yellow, the bill and naked parts are reddish, the feet orange-red, while the lower jaw is densely feathered. _P. rufescens_ of the Ethiopian Region, apparently identical with _P. philippensis_ of South Asia, is white, with black primaries, and a grey shade on the secondaries, tail, crested head, or even lower surface; the back is rose-coloured; the stiff feathers on the fore-neck, the bill and pouch, are yellowish, with vertical red lines on the latter. The remainder of the bare skin is flesh-coloured, and the feet are pink. _P. fuscus_ of the warmer coasts of North America, the range of which south of Panama is uncertain, and depends upon the {84}validity of _P. molinae_ of Peru and Chili, has a white or occasionally yellowish head, silvery-grey upper parts with dusky streaks, and browner under parts. The crested nape is chestnut, varying to blackish; the bill and loral region are grey or bluish, the dark-tipped maxilla being spotted with red; the pouch is red, or dusky, like the feet; the bare orbits are blue. _P. conspicillatus_ of Australia and Southern New Guinea is white, with black wings and tail and a yellow wash on the chest; the bill, feet, and naked parts are yellowish-white, with a blue tinge on the two first and a similarly coloured ring round the orbits, which are divided by a feathered space from the lores. In this Family the sexes are similar; the young being usually crestless, and of a brown hue, with yellowish or dusky pouch and occasionally white mottlings.

[Illustration: FIG. 25.–Crested Pelican. _Pelecanus crispus._ × ⅑.]

Pelicans inhabit not only tidal waters, but also swampy districts and inland lakes, traversing in some cases vast distances on migration, and being usually found in company. Though {85}heavy, and of enormous size, they fly buoyantly and swiftly, with the neck drawn in upon the shoulders and the feet extended behind; while at times they soar in spiral fashion to great altitudes, and circle around with alternate flapping and sailing movements. On land the gait is awkward and waddling, and great difficulty is experienced in rising; but some species habitually perch, and all are very proficient in the water, swimming, diving, or plunging from great heights, according to their various customs. The food consists almost entirely of moderate-sized fish taken by the bird either by pouncing down sharply from above, or, when quiescent on the surface, by immersing the head or disappearing totally from sight with a somersault. The prey is chiefly sought in shallows, and is retained in the pouch until the birds return to land, or until it is transferred half-macerated to the young; occasionally the adults may be seen gorged after feeding, sitting upon the water or basking in the rays of the sun. The deep loud note is very seldom heard. Pelicans usually breed in colonies in wild districts, though occasionally near villages,[87] the nest, when on the branches of trees, being of sticks with a lining of twigs or roots, as in _P. philippensis_; at other times it is a rough mound of gravel and rubbish on the ground with a slight cavity above, as is often the case in the American species, which also lay in mere depressions in the sand, the localities chosen being generally islands in lakes or rivers; the European forms amass a pile of reeds and grasses among aquatic herbage in like places or swamps, while the Australian constructs a large fabric of sticks and water-plants in similar spots or on the summits of rocky islets. The eggs, varying from one to five, but ordinarily two or three in number, are white or bluish-white with a chalky incrustation, soon becoming soiled and often stained with blood. The parents are as a rule shy and easily scared from the nest, where the smell from the refuse fish and excrement is in many cases intolerable. Incubation lasts about four weeks. Bands of these birds sometimes unite to systematically beat the water for their prey, stowing it in the distensible pouch. In India they are used–frequently with the eyes sewn up–to decoy fish by their oily secretions,[88] and in various countries they are slaughtered for the sake of the latter. The fable of the young being fed with blood from the {86}female's breast may have arisen from confusion of the Pelican with the Flamingo, which ejects a blood-like liquid from its mouth.[89]

Of fossil Steganopodes we have _Phaëthon_ from the Pliocene of India; three species of _Pelecanus_ from the same formation of the Siwalik hills, one from the Miocene of Bavaria, one from that of Allier in France, and one from the Queensland drifts; while in England that genus is recorded, on the strength of the humerus, radius, and ulna from the Plistocene of Norfolk and from the Isle of Ely. _Sula_ has occurred in the Miocene of Carolina, and of Auvergne and Ronzon in France; the giant _Pelagornis_–akin to _Sula_ and _Pelecanus_, but perhaps indicating a distinct family–has also been found in the Miocene near Bordeaux; and _Argillornis_, related to _Sula_, in the Lower Eocene (London Clay) of England. From the same beds we have the remarkable _Odontopteryx toliapica_, with coarsely serrated edges to the jaws; _Phalacrocorax_ has been met with in the North American Pliocene, the same strata of the Siwalik hills, the Miocene of Allier and the Orléannais in France, and the Pampean of Argentina, _Actiornis anglicus_ of Lydekker being a close ally from the Hampshire Eocene; _Plotus nanus_ has been described from the Mare aux Songes in Mauritius and from Central Madagascar, _P. parvus_ from Queensland.

The Sub-Order ARDEAE contains the Families _Ardeidae_ and _Scopidae_, in which the body is often compressed, the head and eyes are large, and the neck is long. Most members of the former have a long, straight, sharp bill with rounded culmen and flattened sides, the edges being commonly serrated and the maxilla notched; it may be comparatively small, as in _Zebrilus_, but is usually stout, and in _Cancroma_ is extraordinarily broad and depressed, with prominent keel and somewhat dilatable skin beneath, the form resembling that of an inverted boat. _Balaeniceps_ (Fig. 27) has a huge beak, which is not only flattened and swollen, but has a ridge on the culmen terminating in a hook, the maxilla having an undulating outline above and following the strong upward curve of the mandible below, while its sides are grooved. So peculiar, indeed, is this bird that it might well stand alone in a Sub-family _Balaenicipitinae_, as opposed to the _Ardeinae_, if not referred to the Storks, where many writers have placed it. In _Scopus_ the bill is acute, keeled, greatly compressed, and laterally grooved, with a small hook at the tip. The tibia is usually bare {87}below, though occasionally feathered, as in _Ardetta_ and _Zebrilus_; the metatarsus being remarkably long, except in such forms as _Nycticorax_, _Botaurus_, and _Ardetta_. The latter member is covered anteriorly with transverse or hexagonal scales, which become smaller or reticulated behind, and show a decided tendency to fusion in many cases. The toes are long, with a distinct web between the middle and outer; the claws are generally short and curved, though elongated, slender, and nearly straight in _Botaurus_ and _Ardetta_; that of the middle digit being toothed on the inner side, save in _Balaeniceps_. The wing is somewhat rounded, yet long, and has eleven primaries–reduced to ten in _Scopus_–and from eleven to eighteen secondaries; the fairly even tail is short or moderate, with from ten to twelve broad stiffish feathers, except in _Botaurus_ and _Ardetta_, where the ten rectrices are soft and abbreviated. The tongue is usually long and pointed, but in _Cancroma_, _Balaeniceps_, and _Scopus_ it is very short; the lores and orbits are naked, save in _Scopus_, as is the malar region in _Tigrornis_ and _Tigrisoma_, while the last at times has the throat bare, or merely feathered centrally. The nostrils are impervious only in _Cancroma_ and _Balaeniceps_. The nestlings are uniformly covered with sparse hair-like down. The state of the chick is unrecorded in _Balaeniceps_ and _Scopus_. The furcula is generally V-shaped, the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial, and an aftershaft is present, the latter and the syringeal muscles being much reduced in _Balaeniceps_. Crests and decorative plumes are common, as will be seen below.

Of especial importance are the large, thick, "powder-down patches," or greasy yellow spaces covered with tufts of grey or black filaments, disintegrating into bluish or whitish powder. _Balaeniceps_ has a big pair on the lower back, _Botaurus_ and _Ardetta_ an additional couple on the breast, and the remainder of the Ardeidae two more on the abdomen, except _Cancroma_ which possesses still another pair on the upper back. In _Scopus_ they are absent. The use is uncertain, and the occurrence quite irregular.

Fam. VI. ARDEIDAE.–There are few persons in Britain who are not to some extent acquainted with the habits of the Common Heron or Hern, for it may be seen on the coast as well as on inland waters, and now breeds in more localities than formerly, though in smaller numbers; while of the remainder of the Family the Bitterns alone differ conspicuously in their mode of life. Herons are shy, solitary birds, frequenting lakes, fens, and rivers, where they {88}may often be seen standing ankle-deep in the water, and watching with untiring patience for the prey which never seems to satisfy their appetite. They rarely swim and walk but little. The majority breed in large colonies; but Bitterns (_Botaurus_), Little Bitterns (_Ardetta_), and Green Herons (_Butorides_) are notable exceptions, being, moreover, skulking and nocturnal in habit, and agreeing in the latter respect with Night-Herons (_Nycticorax_). The mud-flats commonly found on sandy shores provide excellent feeding ground, and thence old and young may be seen winging their way at considerable altitudes with leisurely flapping flight–rarely accelerated–to roost at night on the customary trees or rocks. Bitterns and their nearest allies are seldom seen far from marshes, flying noiselessly with laboured action and at a comparatively slow pace; they are, however, adepts at running or climbing among the water-plants, and perch with ease; while they often assume an upright position with the bill vertical, and thereby closely resemble the surrounding reeds, the deception being occasionally enhanced by the bird turning as if on a pivot and facing the spectator constantly.[90] Herons fly with the head drawn back, therein differing from the rest of the Order, and in some cases roost or bask in the sun on one leg; they are usually graceful and stately, the beautiful Egrets moving more easily on land than their kindred, and being somewhat less wary. The voice is a harsh croak or guttural sound, that of the Night-Heron verging upon a quack; while the Bitterns, besides the common cry, utter a booming or bellowing note in the breeding season, generally heard at night or early in the morning, the method of production of which is not at present quite clear. _Ardetta_ gives vent to a somewhat similar but weaker boom or grunt, and most species are noisy at the nest, hissing or screaming sharply. The diet consists largely of fish, but is varied by small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, grasshoppers and other insects, molluscs, crustaceans, and worms, the digestion being very rapid and the birds seldom gorged. In the shallows the majority of the family stand motionless, and spear their prey with the beak as it passes, occasionally mauling it before swallowing; but some move from place to place, while the Buff-backed Heron (_Ardea bubulcus_) habitually picks insects from the backs or sides of the cattle. The nest, commonly situated {89}on lofty trees, though frequently on low bushes, ivy-covered cliffs, flat rocks, or reeds and herbage in swamps, is often a large fabric of sticks without lining or with a slight bedding of grass, leaves, and the like, but may be a mere mass of rushes and flags; the tree-building forms at times resorting to the ground and _vice versâ_. Bitterns generally crush down the aquatic vegetation and add softer materials on this substructure, depositing four or five olive-drab eggs; _Ardetta_ in some cases does the same, but the eggs are bluish- or greenish-white; whereas those of the Herons proper are of a greenish- or whitish-blue colour of varying depth, and exceptionally amount to six or seven. _Butorides_ not uncommonly lays only two. If the first set is removed a second is often produced after a short interval; but the young remain long in the nest. Incubation lasts from sixteen to thirty days. Herons were of old protected by law, as affording an excellent quarry for Falcons, while the flesh was highly esteemed; when wounded, however, they must be carefully approached, as they use the bill with deadly effect, and aim at the captor's eye. In India they are used as decoy-birds with the eyes sewn up.

The following will sufficiently shew the coloration; the largest species is _Ardea goliath_; _Ardetta_ furnishes the smallest forms.

_Botaurus stellaris_, the Bittern, which bred so lately as 1868 in Norfolk, and occurs throughout the warmer parts of the Palaearctic and the whole of the Ethiopian Region, is buff, with black bars above and streaks below, black crown, nape, and stripes down the side of the neck, and chestnut bands on the primaries. _B. lentiginosus_, distinguished by the nearly uniform brown primaries, is rarely found in Britain, but inhabits North America, probably meeting about Nicaragua with _B. pinnatus_ of tropical South America, which lacks the neck-stripes; while _B. poeciloptilus_ of the Australian Region has much of the back brown. The neck-feathers in these birds form an elongated ruff. _Ardetta minuta_ of Central and Southern Europe, Western Asia, and the northern half of Africa, formerly known to have bred in England, is greenish-black, with buff neck, wing-coverts, and under surface, the latter slightly streaked with dusky. These streaks are more decided in other species, which are often greyer, browner, or more ruddy above; _A. cinnamomea_ of the Indian Region is almost entirely rufous, while all have a slight head-tuft. A fuller crest marks _Zebrilus pumilus_ of northern South America, wherein {90}the upper parts are black with fulvous undulations, and the lower parts correspondingly mottled. The "Tiger-Bitterns" (_Tigrisoma_) extend from Central America to North Argentina, the four or five forms varying chiefly in the amount of naked skin on the throat. _T. brasiliense_ is blackish with rusty vermiculations above, and reddish-grey below, the head being mainly chestnut, and the tips of the remiges and spots on the breast white. _Tigrornis leucolophus_ of West Africa has a narrow white crest, the neck-feathers hanging loosely down, as in _Tigrisoma_. _Zonerodius heliosylus_ of New Guinea is black above with fulvous bands, and has white bars on the wing; the rump and fore-neck are white with dusky markings, the lower parts yellowish-white. The genus _Butorides_, connecting the Bitterns and the Herons, exhibits somewhat elongated plumes on the crown, fore-neck, and scapular region. These small birds, variegated with glossy green, black, grey, and chestnut, and often streaked with white, occur chiefly in the Neotropical and Australian Regions, though _B. virescens_ at least inhabits North America and _B. atricapilla_ the Ethiopian countries.

_Nycticorax_ (Night-Heron) is an almost cosmopolitan genus, remarkable for the long linear blackish or white occipital feathers, from two to ten in number, apparently lost for a time after breeding. In our occasional visitor, _N. griseus_, of the Palaearctic, Indian, and Ethiopian Regions, and the barely separable _N. naevius_ of America, the colour is greenish-black, with grey neck, rump, wings, and tail, white cheeks and lower parts. _N. leuconotus_ of the Ethiopian Region has the neck rufous, the back white, and the under surface spotted with dusky; _N._ (_Pilerodius_) _pileatus_ of tropical South America is white with black crown; _N._ (_Nycterodius_) _violaceus_ of the same districts, which extends to the United States, is plumbeous, with yellowish-white crown and black stripes above, the scapulars being somewhat decomposed; _N. pauper_, confined to the Galapagos, is very similar; _N._ (_Syrigma_) _sibilatrix_ of South Brazil, Chili, and Argentina, is grey, with blackish head and remiges, rufous markings on the face and wing-coverts, and yellowish-white breast; _N._ (_Gorsachius_) _goisagi_, ranging from India and the Malay countries to Japan, is red-brown, with buff and white lower parts, the whole plumage being marked with dusky; while _N. caledonicus_ of the Australian Region has the upper parts rich buff, the lower parts white, and only the head black. _Cancroma cochlearia_, the Boat-billed Night-Heron of South {91}America, is blue-grey with white on the forehead and neck; the head, crest, and flanks being black, and the belly cinnamon. _C. zeledoni_ of Central America differs in its reddish fore-neck.

_Ardea_, another world-wide genus, may be subdivided as below if desired,[91] but the supposed generic characters are hardly satisfactory. _A._ (_Buphus_) _bubulcus_, the Buff-backed Heron of South Europe, Africa, and Asia to the Caspian, is white, with buff crown and nape, and elongated occipital, scapular, and jugular plumes of the same colour, developed in the breeding season; _A. coromanda_, with orange head, neck, and scapulars, replacing it from the Caspian eastward and reaching Japan. The former has once visited Britain, while _A._ (_Ardeola_) _ralloides_, the Squacco Heron, has done so frequently. This bird, which ranges from the Canaries and Central Europe to South Africa and Persia, is warm buff, with white wings, tail, breast, and belly, the darker back possessing long hair-like plumes which cover the tail, the jugulars being buff, and the head graced by a tuft of long white feathers, margined with black. _A._ (_Lepterodius_) _gularis_ of tropical Africa and Madagascar, and _A. asha_, extending from the Persian Gulf to India, are dusky-slate with white throat, and have moderate scapular and pectoral plumes, with a nuptial crest. _A._ (_Demiegretta_) _sacra_, ranging from Bengal to Japan, Australia, and the Pacific, differs in having only a white streak down the throat, _A. greyi_ being a white phase. _A._ (_Melanophoyx_) _ardesiaca_ of the Ethiopian Region is almost entirely slaty-black, with elongated occipital, dorsal, and jugular feathers; _A._ (_Notophoyx_) _picata_ of Australia, New Guinea, and the Moluccas, is bluer, and nearly white below; while _A. pacifica_ of that country is greener, with white head and rufescent dorsal plumes. _A._ (_Dichromanassa_) _rufa_ of the warmer parts of North America is plumbeous, with reddish head and neck, its white phase being denominated _A. pealii_; here nearly all the head- and neck-feathers are elongated, and the filamentous scapulars extend beyond the tail. _A._ (_Hydranassa_) _tricolor_, found from the Southern United States to Brazil, is grey-blue, purple, rufous, and white, with shorter seasonal plumes than the preceding; _A._ (_Florida_) _caerulea_, with a slightly more northern range, is slaty-blue, with maroon head and neck, a variable amount of white when immature, and extremely long scapulars; while _A._ (_Agamia_) _agami_ of central and northern South America is metallic green, with rufous and white throat, rufous belly, black cheeks and nape; the very long occipital and dorsal plumes being grey, as is the fore-neck, and the recurved feathers of the sides of the neck reddish.

{92}[Illustration: FIG. 26.–Common Heron. _Ardea cinerea._ × ⅐.]

_A._ (_Garzetta_) _garzetta_, the "Little Egret," which has strayed to Britain, and extends from South Europe to the whole of Africa, India, and Japan, is entirely white, with long filamentous scapular and moderate jugular plumes and two lengthened crest-feathers, all of which are said to be temporarily lost after breeding. _A. nigripes_, ranging from Java to Australia, is barely distinguishable, but the American representative, _A. candidissima_, has a large occipital tuft. _A._ (_Herodias_) _alba_, the Great White Heron, another of our rare visitors, extends from the middle of Europe to most of Africa, Central Asia, and the Burmese countries, beyond which a doubtfully distinct species, with yellower bill, reaches Australia and New Zealand; the American _A. egretta_, however, differs in its black legs. The breeding adult is white, with very long decomposed scapular and lengthened jugular plumes, but no crest. The most typical forms of _Ardea_ are large slaty-coloured birds, varied by black, rufous, and white, the head being commonly darker and the lower parts striped; while two slender occipital plumes are, {93}in most cases, developed in the nuptial period, and the scapular and jugular feathers are elongated, though not decomposed. The Common Heron (_A. cinerea_), ranging through Europe, Africa, and Asia, to Japan and Australia, needs no description, but the Purple Heron, _A._ (_Phoyx_) _purpurea_, though it often occurs in Britain, is less well known. It is grey, with black crown and black stripes down the sides of the buff neck, chestnut scapulars, rufous, grey, and black jugular plumes, and maroon breast; the range being from Central and Southern Europe to South Africa, China, and the Philippines. _A. herodias_ of North America meets in northern South America the white-necked _A. cocoi_, both species resembling _A. cinerea_, but the former having rufous thighs and edge of the wing. The white _A. occidentalis_, of Florida and Cuba,[92] was formerly thought to be an instance of dichromatism. The African _A. goliath_ has the head and neck rufous and the under surface chiefly maroon.

[Illustration: FIG. 27.–Whale-head or Shoe-bill. _Balaeniceps rex._ × 1/14.]

The sexes are usually alike; but the female has ordinarily shorter plumes, and may be duller, as may the young, though the stages of plumage are not yet completely worked out. White or rufous markings are often noticeable, especially in immature specimens of _Ardea_; there is little red about the head in those of _Dichromanassa_, though in _Hydranassa_ the amount is greater than in the adult; those of _Florida_ are generally very white; and, conversely, white {94}species often shew grey tints in early life; while immature examples of _Nycticorax_ differ entirely from their parents, being brown with white or buff spotting above, and white with dusky stripes below.

The bill, feet, naked lores, and orbits may be reddish, bluish, green, yellow, brown, or black.

_Balaeniceps rex_, the Shoe-bill, of the White Nile, has a short crest, and is brownish-grey with blackish wings, tail, and feet, the bill being yellow with dusky mottlings. It usually forms large flocks, and frequents bushy morasses. The flight is Heron-like, and the birds will often settle on trees; the young run about with extended wings and clattering bills.[93] The food consists of fish, frogs, snakes, molluscs, and even carrion. A mere hole in the dry soil often contains the chalky white eggs, from two to twelve in number, but a lining of herbage is frequently added.

[Illustration: FIG. 28.–Hammer-head. _Scopus umbretta._ × ⅙. (From _Nature_.)]

{95}Fam. VII. SCOPIDAE.–_Scopus umbretta_, the Hammer-head, of Madagascar and a large part of the Ethiopian Region, is purplish-brown, with black tail-bars, wider towards the tip; the head exhibits a thick erectile crest, generally carried horizontally; the bill is black and the feet are brownish. It frequents wooded districts near water, and is usually found in pairs; not being very shy, except when breeding, and being more active at dusk than in the daytime. At night it roosts in trees. The neck is slightly curved in flight, but the feet are outstretched, while the gait on the ground is deliberate. The note is a harsh quack or weak metallic sound; the food consists of fish, reptiles, frogs, worms, molluscs, and insects captured in shallow water, and while feeding the birds have a curious habit of skipping round each other with extended wings. The nest is an enormous structure of sticks, lined with roots, grass, rushes, or clay, having a hole at the side, and ordinarily a flat top; it is placed in a tree, on a rocky ledge, or exceptionally on the ground. Three to five white eggs form the complement. Native imagination associates this species with witchcraft.

Besides the extinct brevipennate _Nycticorax megacephalus_ of Rodriguez, known to the first colonists, and the fossil _Butorides mauritianus_ of the Mare aux Songes, this Sub-Order furnishes _Proherodius oweni_ from the London Clay (Lower Eocene); _Ardea_ from the Miocene of France and Germany, and the Pliocene of Oregon.

Fam. VIII. CICONIIDAE.–Of the Sub-Order CICONIAE, the first Family is that of the Storks, which have long necks and also long stout beaks, usually straight and fairly cylindrical, but occasionally compressed, as in _Leptoptilus_, upturned towards the tip, as in _Mycteria_, or decurved, as in _Tantalus_; in _Anastomus_ there is a wide gap between the grooved mandibles, the edges of the maxilla possessing fine horny lamellae. Very remarkable, moreover, are the unprotected pervious nostrils, which are mere perforations in the bony sheath. The tibia is partly bare, while the elongated metatarsus is covered with hexagonal scales, becoming more reticulated behind in _Leptoptilus_ and _Mycteria_; the partially webbed front toes and flattened claws are in most cases very short–though lengthened and more slender in _Tantalus_–and rest upon horny pads,[94] the hallux being slightly elevated. The wings are ample and fairly long, with eleven stout primaries in _Ciconia_ and twelve elsewhere, and from fourteen to twenty-five secondaries, the inner of which are often greatly {96}developed. The short tail is normally even or slightly rounded, with twelve broad feathers, but in _Dissura_ it is deeply forked[95] and rigid, while the unusually stiff coverts extending from beneath are easily mistaken for rectrices. In _Leptoptilus_ these elongated coverts are soft, and are the genuine "Marabou feathers." The furcula is U-shaped, the tongue rudimentary, the aftershaft present or absent, and there are no powder-down patches; the trachea in the male of _Tantalus ibis_ has several intrathoracic convolutions,[96] while there is an entire want of syringeal muscles. The adults and young possess uniform down, that of the nestlings being greyish or whitish.

Storks, though easily tamed, are naturally shy, solitary birds, which frequent wooded or open country on plains or hills, usually near inland waters, creeks, or salt-water lagoons; the White Stork and the Adjutant are, however, instances of somewhat different habits, the former showing a predilection for homesteads, and the latter being protected as a scavenger in some parts of India; while _Ciconia abdimii_ is considered a "bird of blessing" by the natives of Africa. Flocks are occasionally seen. The flight is graceful and noiseless, but powerful and rapid, the neck and legs being carried in line with the body, and immense heights being often attained by soaring and circling movements. No difficulty is experienced in walking, and many species stalk solemnly about in pursuit of prey, whether in water or on dry land; not uncommonly they rest with the whole metatarsus upon the ground, or stand on one foot with the bill touching the breast. They are ordinarily quiescent during the heat of the day, and at night frequently roost in trees. _Mycteria senegalensis_ and _M. indica_ are said to dance around their mates, the former skipping and bowing, and the latter fluttering its extended wings, which touch those of its partner, while advancing the head and making a clatter with the bill.[97] Generally speaking, this is the only noise Storks produce, owing to the want of voice-muscles; but Adjutants are said to utter a loud grunting croak or bellow, and the young of _Ciconia nigra_ to give vent to a guttural cry. The food consists of fish, reptiles, amphibians, crustaceans, molluscs, grasshoppers, and beetles, with small mammals, or even eggs and young of birds; but _Leptoptilus_ is nearly omnivorous and enjoys carrion, including human carcases, {97}_Dissura maguari_ having like habits. _Anastomus_ is called the Shell-Ibis from its cleverness in extracting _Unio_ and other molluscs from their shells, and _Mycteria_ thrusts its bill into the ground in search of grubs. The nests are frequently in tall trees, but may be on ledges or in cavities of cliffs, or on flat tops of rocky hills; the shallow fabric, often of enormous size, being composed of sticks with or without a lining of grass, leaves, moss, rushes, feathers, down, or, exceptionally, clay. Colonies are in most cases formed, but White Storks occupy separate sites on houses, farms, towers, or even cart-wheels purposely erected, and Black Storks breed apart in woods and precipitous gorges. On the other hand, more than thirty nests of _Anastomus_ have been observed in one tree. The eggs, numbering from three to six, are white and chalky, and stain easily. Incubation lasts nearly four weeks. The adult inserts its bill into that of the helpless nestling to feed it, while the male attends constantly upon his sitting mate; we may, however, safely disregard the more fabulous instances of affection recorded.

Wood-Ibises are similar in habits, but they are more gregarious; and build smaller nests of twigs lined with moss, laying as many as eight white eggs, rarely streaked with pale brown.

_Tantalus loculator_, the "Wood-Ibis" of the warmer parts of America, is white, with metallic greenish-black remiges and rectrices, the bare head and upper neck being covered with dusky corrugated skin, and the crown with a smooth plate. The beak and feet are lead-coloured, the under wing-coverts pinkish. _T._ (_Pseudotantalus_) _ibis_ of the Ethiopian Region has only the front of the head naked, but is rosy towards the upper and under wing-coverts, the smooth face and feet being red and the bill yellow. _T. leucocephalus_ of the Indian and Indo-Chinese countries differs in its yellow face, while the Indo-Malay _T. cinereus_ has it red and black.

_Anastomus oscitans_, the "Open-bill," another Indian and Indo-Chinese species, is white, with black scapulars, remiges, and rectrices, yellow bill and feet; the Ethiopian _A. lamelligerus_ is metallic black varied by a little rufous, the shafts of the feathers of the fore-neck and lower parts in adults expanding into flat shining, horn-like plates at the tip. _Leptoptilus dubius_, the "Adjutant" of the Indian Region, is greenish-black above and white below, the fleshy-red head and neck being naked with a few hairs, and a white ruff surmounting the shoulders, while a huge ruddy pouch, communicating with the nasal cavity, hangs below the throat. The {98}bill is greenish and the feet greyish, the former being yellowish and the latter black in the two following species. The Ethiopian _L. crumenifer_ has the bare portions spotted with black; _L. javanicus_ of Manchuria and the Indian Region has some white on the wing-coverts, yellow naked parts with a horny greenish crown, a line of hair on the nape, and a tuft on the fore-neck.

[Illustration: FIG. 29.–White Stork. _Ciconia alba._ × ⅒.]

_Mycteria americana_, the "Jabiru," ranging from Texas to Argentina, is white, with black head, neck, bill, and feet; the naked head having a hairy patch on the occiput, and the bare neck a red distensible basal band. The Australian and Papuan _M._ (_Xenorhynchus_) _australis_ is black with purple and green gloss, except the back and lower surface, which are white; the head and neck are feathered, the bill is black, the feet are red. The Indian _M. indica_ is barely separable. _M._ (_Ephippiorhynchus_) _senegalensis_, the Ethiopian "Saddle-billed Stork," differs in having a triangular frontal shield of yellow skin, a naked crimson pectoral spot, a crimson bill with black median band, and black metatarsi with reddish joints. _Dissura episcopus_ of the Indian and Ethiopian {99}Regions is metallic black with white abdomen and under tail-coverts, downy white head and neck with black crown, reddish bill and feet. _D. maguari_ of South America has the head and neck feathered, naked red lores and sides of the throat, white plumage with black wings and tail, yellowish bill and red feet.

_Ciconia_ (_Abdimia_) _abdimii_ of the Ethiopian Region is bronzy-black with white lower surface; the chin, membranous forehead, and tip of the bill being orange-red, the remainder of the bill greenish and the bare cheeks bluish. _C. nigra_, the Black Stork of British lists, is iridescent black, with white breast and belly, red bill, feet, and orbits; _C. alba_, the White Stork, a much more common visitor here, is white with black wings and orbits, red bill and feet. The former–reckoning for the irregular distribution characteristic of the Family–may be said to inhabit Europe, Palaearctic Asia, and North Africa, wintering southward to India and Cape Colony; the latter is more abundant within a like area, and is represented in East Siberia, China, and Japan by _C. boyciana_ with black bill and red orbits.

The sexes in this group are similar; but when immature the whiter species are often more dusky, and the blacker species brownish, while the bill and legs may then be greenish instead of red, as in _C. nigra_, or the head and neck more feathered, as in _Tantalus_.

The Fossils referred to this Family are _Propelargus_ of the Upper Eocene of France, _Pelargodes_, _Tantalus_, and possibly _Leptoptilus_ of its Miocene; _Amphipelargus_ of the Pliocene of Samos; _Palaeociconia_ of the Plistocene of Brazil; _Palaeopelargus_ and _Xenorhynchus_ of that of Queensland.

Fam. IX. The IBIDIDAE, connected with the Storks through _Tantalus_, may be divided into the Sub-families (1) _Ibidinae_ or Ibises, and (2) _Plataleinae_ or Spoonbills. In the former the long bill is weak, nearly cylindrical, and strongly curved; in the latter flattened, narrowed in the middle, and dilated into a terminal spoon, which finally turns downwards. The nasal grooves are remarkably elongated, the skull is somewhat square in _Thaumatibis_ and _Graptocephalus_. The tibia is partly bare, the metatarsus of medium length and often stout, with transverse or hexagonal scales becoming almost reticulated behind, or even in front in _Hagedashia_ and _Carphibis_; the toes are generally long, with short anterior webs and variable claws, that of the third digit being sometimes serrated. The moderate wings have eleven primaries and from fourteen to {100}nineteen secondaries; the tail of twelve rectrices is usually short and even, or slightly rounded, but may be long, as in _Comatibis_, _Geronticus_, _Cercibis_, and _Theristicus_; in the last two of which it is cuneate. The furcula is U-shaped, the tongue rudimentary, the nostrils are pervious, an aftershaft is present, but there are no powder-down patches or syringeal muscles. _Platalea leucorodia_ has the trachea convoluted like a figure of 8 in old birds. Adults and nestlings are uniformly downy, the latter varying from black with a white band over the crown in _Plegadis_ to white in _Platalea_.

Sub-fam. 1. _Ibidinae._–Ibises are shy birds, which inhabit not only marshy spots and wooded country, but also the driest of plains and rocky gorges, being found both in pairs and in flocks. The flight is tolerably high and rapid, with extended neck and legs, most species habitually sailing or circling aloft, though _Plegadis_ rises with a whirr and skims along at no great elevation. On the ground the gait is graceful, and swimming is certainly practised at times, nor are perching or roosting on trees or reeds uncommon habits. The usual note is loud and harsh, _Ibis melanocephala_ being said to have a booming call[98] and _Inocotis_ a melancholy scream[99]; the food consists chiefly of aquatic insects, molluscs, crustaceans, and worms; but small fish, lizards, newts, frogs, grasshoppers, and beetles form part of the diet; _Geronticus_, which does not despise carrion, acts as a scavenger. Most Ibises wade in pursuit of prey, whether in fresh or salt water, moving the bill to and fro, and probing the subjacent mud. Some species breed apart, others in colonies; the nest being placed on trees or low bushes, and more rarely among reeds, or, as in _Geronticus_ and _Comatibis_, in holes in cliffs or on ledges. The structure is not remarkably large, and is composed of sticks or stems of plants, with or without a lining of herbage, straw, or roots; the eggs, from two to four in number, being deep green-blue in _Plegadis_, pale blue in _Graptocephalus_, similar or darker in _Inocotis_, olive-green in _Hagedashia_, and greenish-white in _Ibis_ and _Eudocimus_, or even brownish in the last-named. In all except the first two there are generally reddish or brownish markings. Incubation lasts about three weeks.

_Eudocimus ruber_ and _E. albus_, the Scarlet and White Ibises of tropical America, are respectively coloured as the names import, the tips of the longer primaries and of the bill being black, while the {101}bare front of the head and throat, the remainder of the bill and the feet are red. The former, of more eastern range, strays to the southern United States, the latter occurring farther north, and breeding in Florida. _Lampribis olivacea_ of West Africa is coppery olive-green, with buff centres to the feathers of the loose occipital crest and under parts, the wings being more metallic, and the naked forehead and loral region black. The bill and feet are red. _Plegadis falcinellus_, the Glossy Ibis, which occasionally visits Britain, is found irregularly in Northern Europe and commonly in the south, extending through most of Asia and North Africa, and migrating as far as Australia and Natal. It also occurs in the South-Eastern United States and the West Indies. The head, neck, mantle, and lower surface are chestnut, the remaining parts purplish-green and bronzy, with bare greenish lores and blackish bill and feet; _P. guarauna_, which represents the genus from the Western and Southern United States and the Hawaiian Islands to Patagonia, having red lores, white feathers round the beak, and at times red bill and feet. _P. ridgwayi_ of Peru and Chili is purplish-black below, with reddish-grey bill and black feet. _Cercibis oxycerca_, found from Colombia to Upper Amazonia, is dark olive-green with a little purple and blue gloss, the naked face and throat being pinkish and the bill and feet yellowish. The crest is slight, while a line of feathers ascends the throat. _Lophotibis cristata_, confined to Madagascar, is reddish-chestnut, with white wings, blue-green tail, and an enormous crest combining all three colours; the bill is greenish, the feet and the bare orbital region are red. _Phimosus infuscatus_, ranging from Colombia to Argentina, is bronzy-green with purple reflexions, the feet, bill, and face being pink, with papillae on the forehead and cheeks. The slightly crested _Harpiprion cayennensis_, occurring from Panama to South Brazil, is similarly coloured, but has greenish-grey bill, feet, and naked skin on the lores, chin, and sides of the throat. _Molybdophanes caerulescens_ of Brazil and Argentina is greyish-green with dark bluish remiges, grey-brown crown, nuchal crest and lower parts, white frontal band, naked black chin and warty lores, black bill and yellow feet. _Theristicus caudatus_ of Guiana is greenish-brown, with orange-buff head and neck, blackish under parts, and

## partially white wing-coverts; the papillose lores, upper throat, and orbits

being naked and black, and a whitish tuft adorning the chin. The bill is black with greenish tip, and the feet are red. {102}_T. melanopis_, differing in its rufous breast, inhabits America from Peru and Brazil southwards; _T. branickii_ being probably identical. _Bostrychia carunculata_ of North-East Africa is greenish-brown with metallic reflexions and white on the wing-coverts, the crested head and under surface having whitish margins to the feathers, and the bill, feet, and a long thin gular caruncle being red. _Hagedashia hagedash_, of the Ethiopian Region generally, is somewhat similar but brighter, with no white on the wing and no crest or wattle; the dusky lores are bare and warty, the bill is black with crimson base to the culmen, and the feet are chiefly red. _Geronticus calvus_ of South Africa, except for its shorter crest and greenish-white fore-neck, is not unlike _Comatibis comata_ of Northern Africa, Arabia, and the Euphrates, which is metallic greenish-black with a large bronzy-red patch on each wing, a fine nuchal tuft of narrow feathers, red bill, feet, and bare skin of the head and throat. There is some question here as to the colour of the naked spaces. _Nipponia nippon_, of East Siberia, Corea, Japan, China, and Formosa, is white with pinkish remiges and rectrices; a long pendent crest graces the nape, the bare face is vermilion, the bill black with red tip, while the feet are lighter red. _Graptocephalus davisoni_ of the Burmese Countries and Cochin China and _Inocotis papillosus_ of India are both dusky brown, with bluish-black wings and tail, a white patch on the wing-coverts, greyish bill, and red feet; but whereas in the former the black naked head is separated by a bare bluish-white collar from the neck, in the latter the hinder crown is dotted with red papillae. _Carphibis spinicollis_ of Australia is black with purple and coppery sheen, the sides of the downy neck, the tail, and the abdomen being white, and the feathers of the chest, which are converted into stiff straw-like processes, yellowish. The naked head and throat are black, the bill is black with brown bars at the base, the tibiae are crimson, and the metatarsi dusky. The huge _Thaumatibis gigantea_ of Cochin China is blackish-brown glossed with green, and shows much grey on the wing; the scapulars are decomposed and the head and upper neck bare; the nape is crossed by black bars, and the bill and feet are dull red. _Ibis aethiopica_, the Sacred Ibis of the ancient Egyptians, of which mummies are so often found in the temples, represented to that people the moon-god Thoth, and is now the Abou-Hannes or Father John of Abyssinia. It inhabits the Ethiopian Region, {103}being most plentiful on the Upper Nile, though wandering to the Persian Gulf, Egypt, and Algeria. The bare head and neck, the bill, feet, and tips of the primaries are black; the decomposed inner secondaries and scapulars, which in summer curve gracefully over the hinder parts, are iridescent black, the remainder of the plumage is white. _I. bernieri_ of Madagascar, and probably Aldabra Island, has white primaries, as has _I. melanocephala_, ranging from India and Java to Japan. The latter, moreover, develops in the breeding season a ruff of long plumes on the fore-neck, similar to that of _I. molucca_ of Australia, Papuasia, and Ceram, which is distinguished by ten pink bars crossing the occiput and nape, and pink spots on the crown.

The sexes are similar, but young Ibises are comparatively dull, and have feathered heads and necks, while crests and ornamental plumes are generally absent. In immature examples of _Ibis_ and elsewhere the head and neck are black and white, in _Nipponia_ the plumage is apparently grey, in _Eudocimus_ chiefly brown.

Sub-fam. 2. _Plataleinae._–Spoonbills are shy gregarious birds, frequenting creeks of the sea or marshes, where they may be seen wading ankle-deep in water, hunting for the fish, frogs, crustaceans, molluscs, beetles, and insect-larvae on which they live, or searching the ground in drier spots. They walk sedately, and fly with easy flapping action and outstretched head and legs, now and then rising spirally to float aloft; while swimming, perching, or standing on one leg are ordinary habits. In feeding, the beak is moved from side to side in semicircular fashion, the body acting in unison. There are no true vocal muscles, the voice being a harsh quack or deep Heron-like note; but a clattering of the bill is heard at times, less noisy than in Storks. The nest, when in reed-beds, is a mass of twigs, flags, and the like, placed on the ground or on low bushes; but it is commonly a large platform of sticks in a tree, the three to five roughish eggs being dull white with red-brown spotting. Colonies are nearly always formed.

_Platalea leucorodia_, the Spoonbill, which once bred regularly in England, ranges over Central and Southern Europe and Northern Africa, to Central Asia, Ceylon, and China; _P. regia_ inhabits Australia, and probably Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, and New Guinea, straying also to New Zealand; _P. minor_ occurs in China, Corea, Japan, and Formosa; _P. alba_ in the Ethiopian Region with Madagascar. The plumage is white, with bare lores orbits, and throat, and a fine nuchal crest in the breeding season, the fore-neck being tinged with buff, except in the last-named.

{104}[Illustration: FIG. 30.–Spoonbill. _Platalea leucorodia._ × ⅙.]

_P. leucorodia_ has yellow naked areas, black feet and bill, with yellow bars and tip to the latter; _P. minor_ differs in having the neck-feathers produced to a point on the black throat; _P. regia_ has the above parts, except a portion of the orbits, black, and _P. alba_ all of them red. The maxilla is transversely corrugated, at least in summer.[100] _Platibis flavipes_ of Australia is white, with no crest, but with black outer webs to the decomposed inner {105}secondaries, and elongated straw-yellow plumes on the fore-neck in the nuptial period; the naked forehead, ocular region, throat, bill, and feet being yellow; while a black line separates the gorge from the feathered parts in the adult. _Ajaja rosea_ of tropical America, which reaches the South-East United States, is rose-pink, with white neck, back, and breast, pinkish-buff tail, and carmine wing- and tail-coverts; the bare head is yellowish-green, the orbits and throat are orange, the bill is greenish-blue with grey and black base, the feet are crimson, while a curly pink tuft is developed on the fore-neck in the breeding season.

The female Spoonbill is like the male. The young seem to be duller, with no crest or ornamental plumes; in some cases the primaries are tipped with black, in _Ajaja_ the head is entirely feathered.

Of fossil forms, _Ibidopsis_ occurs in the Upper Eocene of England, _Ibis_ and _Ibidopodia_, the latter of which connects the Ibises with the Storks, in the Miocene of France, _Ibis_ also in that of Bavaria, _Protibis_ in that of Patagonia, _Platalea_ in the Queensland drifts.

Fams. X.-XI. The Sub-Order PHOENICOPTERI, including the PHOENICOPTERIDAE or Flamingos and the extinct PALAELODIDAE, stands midway between the Storks and the Geese, having been on that account termed AMPHIMORPHAE by Huxley, a term equivalent to the ODONTOGLOSSAE of Nitzsch. The extraordinary Flamingos have very long slender necks and unwieldy-looking bills, high at the base and abruptly bent down in the middle, the maxilla being highly movable and in some cases smaller than the nearly immovable grooved mandible–a condition of affairs seldom found elsewhere, and correlated with the peculiar method of feeding. As in the Anseres, the beak–which is short and straight in the young–is covered with a soft membrane, and ends in a black nail-like process rich in nerves, the margins being furnished in the adult with horny lamellae. The legs are unusually long, with nearly bare tibiae and laterally compressed metatarsi, covered with broad scutes which become smaller posteriorly; the hallux is absent or somewhat elevated and reduced, while the short anterior toes are fully webbed and have flat stunted claws. The wing is fairly long, with twelve primaries and about twenty-two secondaries; the tail is even, with fourteen small weak rectrices. The furcula is U-shaped, the nostrils are pervious, the tongue is thick, an aftershaft is present, and the syrinx is tracheo-bronchial.

{106}[Illustration: FIG. 31.–Flamingo. _Phoenicopterus roseus._ × 1/11.]

_Phoenicopterus ruber_, ranging from Florida to Pará and the Galápagos, is light vermilion with brighter wing-coverts, the yellowish bill having a black tip and the feet being red; the other forms are rosy-white with the coverts scarlet, while all have black remiges; the naked orbits and lores vary from rose-coloured to yellow, _P. minor_, _P. andinus_, and _P. jamesi_ having feathered chins. _P. roseus_, recorded thrice from Britain and several times from North Germany, while extending from Central Europe, the Canaries, and Cape Verds to the whole of Africa, Lake Baikal, India, and Ceylon, has red feet and a pink bill with black tip; _P. chilensis_, of America south {107}of Central Peru, Uruguay, and perhaps Brazil, has green-grey metatarsi with red joints, the black on the bill reaching above the bend; _P._ (_Phoeniconaias_) _minor_, of the Ethiopian Region, Madagascar, and North-West India, is very like _P. roseus._ _P._ (_Phoenicoparrus_) _andinus_, of the Andes of Bolivia, Chili, and Argentina–the largest species of the Family–and _P. jamesi_, of South Peru and Chili, lack the hallux, and have the base of the bill yellow and the middle red, with yellow and red feet respectively.

The young are chiefly greyish- or buffish-white, with brown or black markings, rarely seen beneath, and duller naked parts; the adults are uniformly downy, the nestlings white and woolly.

Flamingos are shy birds, sometimes found singly, but usually in immense flocks, which fly gracefully in V-shaped formations with alternate flapping and gliding motion, or circle around with outstretched neck and legs after rising with some difficulty. They spend their time chiefly in wading, the gait being slow and stiff; yet they can swim on occasion, and give evidence of their Anserine affinity by loud harsh cries, much resembling the gaggling of Geese, and by their helpless state in late summer, due to the loss of the flight-feathers. Very curious is their method of feeding, the head being completely inverted and directed backwards, as they tramp about in the shallows and seek for the aquatic herbage, frogs, crustaceans, molluscs, and so forth, which constitute their food, the lamellae of the bill acting as a sifting apparatus. The breeding colonies are situated on some lake, salt lagoon, or "marisma" of little depth, with bare shores, the conical or cylindrical mud nests being slightly hollowed at the top and varying in height from two to fifteen inches according to the amount of water. Several hundred individuals commonly breed together, though they not infrequently change their quarters annually; they are said to fashion the nest with their feet, and lay one or two eggs with bluish shell and chalky incrustation, incubation lasting four weeks or more. Mr. Abel Chapman,[101] Sir Henry Blake,[102] and Mr. Maynard[103] have shewn that the bird sits with her legs doubled under her, and her head directed forwards, though reliable persons have asserted that the feet hung down, and Dampier (prior to 1683) alleged that the parent stood erect and covered the structure with her rump. Eggs are often dropped {108}promiscuously by the hen. The young run from the shell, and even when fully grown can be driven in flocks by intending captors.

Of extinct forms the allied _Agnopterus_ occurs in the Upper Eocene of France and possibly of England; _Helornis_, with somewhat shorter bones, in the Lower Miocene of France and the transition beds of the two formations, as well as the Middle Miocene of Germany; and several species of _Phoenicopterus_, in the French Lower Miocene, the Pliocene of Oregon, and the Mare aux Songes in Mauritius. Lastly, there are five species of _Palaelodus_, constituting the family _Palaelodidae_,[104] in which the bill was probably straight, and the tibia and metatarsus were much shorter than in _Phoenicopterus_, but the toes longer. They are found in lacustrine deposits of the French Lower Miocene and the German Middle Miocene, while remains resembling them, to which the name _Scaniornis_ has been given, are met with in the Chalk of South Sweden.[105]

ORDER VI. ANSERIFORMES.

The Order Anseriformes consists of the Sub-Orders PALAMEDEAE and ANSERES, each containing a single Family, _Palamedeidae_ and _Anatidae_ respectively. Lying between the Ciconiiformes and the Falconiformes, the connexion of this group with the former is much the most easily recognised, as it shows decided affinities to the PHOENICOPTERI, while between the ANSERES and the Birds of Prey there occurs one of those gaps common to every linear system of classification. All the members agree in having the furcula U-shaped and the nostrils pervious. The large spiral penis is unique among the Carinatae, though comparable with that of the Ratitae. The down is uniformly distributed in both adults and nestlings, the aftershaft is rudimentary or absent, the tongue is thick and fleshy, and has bristly sides in the _Anatidae_; while the possession of two pairs of sterno-tracheal muscles is a marked point of distinction from other Carinate Birds. All the species are aquatic, and live almost entirely on vegetable matter. The young leave the nest within a few days, or even hours.

Fam. I. PALAMEDEIDAE.–In this group the head is small and the neck long, while the ribs have no uncinate processes, an archaic feature only found elsewhere among Birds in _Archaeopteryx_. The {109}bill is short and Fowl-like, with a blunt decurved tip, a covering of soft skin, and more or less of a cere; the tibiae are partly naked, the entirely reticulated metatarsi moderately long and fairly stout; the toes are elongated and have strong claws, but only rudimentary anterior webs; the wings are ample and somewhat rounded, with eleven primaries and about sixteen large secondaries; the tail has fourteen broad feathers in _Palamedea_ and twelve in _Chauna_.[106] Very noticeable are the two sharp spurs on the carpal portion of each wing, of which the foremost is the biggest; while in the even distribution of the body-plumage this Family recalls the Ratitae and the Spheniscidae. The sexes are alike; the nestlings, where known, are clad in yellowish-brown and grey down, the wing-spurs being developed in the earliest stages.

The following account of the habits of _Chauna cristata_,[107] the Chajá or Chaka, must stand for those of the Family, in default of further details concerning the more northern forms. This striking species is a common resident in the swamps and brackish lagoons of Argentina, where the islands of the intricate morasses often hold flocks of more than a hundred individuals, the separate pairs being said to mate for life. The flight is slow, with powerful strokes of the wing, the birds being greatly addicted to soaring in spiral circles until they are hardly visible, and at times floating lazily upon the breeze. They rise noisily from the ground with laboured action, and are occasionally seen to perch in trees; but they are by nature waders which swim with considerable facility, and, when they do so, their bodies shew well above the water, owing no doubt to the same pneumaticity which causes a crackling noise to be heard when the skin is compressed. The food consists of succulent water-plants, seeds, clover, and so forth. The loud cry, uttered with the head thrown back when the performer is on the ground, may be heard at a distance of two miles, the male giving vent to a "cha-ha" and the female replying with a "cha-ha-li." The regular period for reproduction is the southern spring–September and October–but it is a remarkable fact that breeding takes place also in autumn and even winter; the nest being a massive structure of reeds and rushes slightly hollowed above, and standing some two feet high with its foundations in water, or, {110}in exceptional cases, floating. This nest is placed in some narrow channel or near the side of a lagoon, and contains from four to six oval buffish-white eggs. The female rises silently when disturbed, nor do the parents usually attack an intruder; but wounded birds are dangerous to approach, and make good use of their sharp spurs. The voice of the young is a feeble chirp; they are often trained, as they grow up, to act as guardians to the poultry of their owners. The flesh is coarse and dark, with a duck-like flavour.

_Palamedea cornuta_, the Horned Screamer, found from Guiana, Venezuela, and Amazonia to Ecuador and Eastern Peru, is glossy black with an admixture of white on the crown, lesser wing-coverts, and carpal edge; greyish foreneck, white abdomen, brownish-grey bill, and ashy feet. The lores are feathered, and a long, slender, yellowish-white horn adorns the forehead. The female is said to have buff on the wing-coverts. _Chauna chavaria_ (_derbiana_ auctt.) occurs in Venezuela and Colombia; it is glossy slate-black with greyer head and occipital crest, white cheeks and throat, and a little white on the wing. The naked lores are pink, the bill and feet apparently red. _C. cristata_ (_chavaria_ auctt.) differs in being dark grey, with a black ring round the neck and whitish-grey cheeks and throat. This is the largest form, and is bigger than a Turkey; it ranges from South Brazil to Argentina, and shares with _Cariama_ (p. 258) the name of Crested Screamer.

[Illustration: FIG. 32.–Chajá. _Chauna cristata._ × ⅒.]

Fam. II. The Sub-Order ANSERES contains the single {111}cosmopolitan Family ANATIDAE, with the Swans, Geese, and Ducks; where, in spite of many attempts at subdivision, the lines of demarcation cannot yet be finally determined. Count Salvadori, however, having lately propounded a carefully-elaborated arrangement,[108] I have adopted his Sub-families in the present volume, viz. (1) _Merginae_, (2) _Merganettinae_, (3) _Erismaturinae_, (4) _Fuligulinae_, (5) _Anatinae_, (6) _Chenonettinae_, (7) _Anserinae_, (8) _Cereopsinae_, (9) _Plectropterinae_, (10) _Anseranatinae_, and (11) _Cygninae_.

The skull is short and robust; while the neck is abnormally developed, with extra vertebrae, in the Swans, and is usually long, though less so in the Sea-Ducks; in the _Merginae_ and some _Fuligulinae_ the customary posterior notches in the sternum are converted into two complete fenestrae or apertures. The bill is almost entirely covered with a soft sensitive membrane, ending in a horny process termed the nail, the skin being warty in _Anseranas_ and _Chen rossi_; _Cereopsis_ has a large tumid cere; both sexes of _Cygnus melanocoryphus_ and _C. olor_ have a knob at the base of the culmen, as have the males of _Plectropterus_, _Tadorna cornuta_, and the domesticated form of _Cycnopsis cycnoïdes_; the same sex of _Somateria spectabilis_ has the posterior portion of the maxilla spread into a disk; _Oedemia_ has it considerably swollen even in the female; _Cairina_ and _Plectropterus_ have caruncles on the forehead; _Sarcidiornis_ has a fleshy comb at the proximal extremity of the beak in the male; while _Biziura_ has a dependent flap on the chin, and a small subgular pouch. The bill is usually broad and depressed, and may be sub-conical, as in many Geese; spatulate, as in _Spatula_ and _Malacorhynchus_; or somewhat less dilated, as in _Chaulelasmus_, and so forth. There is a distinct hook at the tip in _Mergus_, _Dendrocycna_, and _Aex_; the culmen is concave in _Marmaronetta_ and _Stictonetta_; the nail is bent inwards in the latter and _Erismatura_, while the maxilla may overlap the mandible, or the covering membrane may even hang over the latter, as in _Malacorhynchus_, _Hymenolaemus_, and to a less extent in _Elasmonetta_ and _Nesonetta_. The length is very variable, but the thin elongated "sawbill" of _Mergus_, with its serrated edges, is especially remarkable. Most characteristic of the Family is the presence of highly-developed lamellae or transverse tooth-like processes on both maxilla and mandible, which are visible when {112}the jaws are closed in many cases, and are comparable to the similar formations in _Prion_ (Procellariidae) and the Phoenicopteridae. They act no doubt as a sifting apparatus, but may assist in nipping off herbage and gripping fish, the piscivorous Mergansers having them directed backwards. The metatarsus is normally short or moderate, though occasionally long, as in _Plectropterus_ and _Dendrocycna_; it may be stout and roundish, as in _Anser_, or laterally compressed, as in _Fuligula_; and is usually reticulated with transverse scutellae in front, though wholly reticulated in the Cygninae, Anserinae, and _Dendrocycna_. The anterior toes are fully webbed, _Anseranas_ and _Cereopsis_ alone having the foot semi-palmated; the hallux is short and elevated–except in the former species, where it is long and incumbent–and possesses a broad membranous lobe in the Merginae, Merganettinae, Erismaturinae, and Fuligulinae, while a very narrow membrane may be observed in the Anatinae and Chenonettinae. The claws are as a rule small and curved, but are long and sharp in _Anseranas_, _Dendrocycna_, _Nettopus_, and _Plectropterus_. The wings vary considerably, but are usually ample and rather long, though short in _Cosmonetta_, _Erismatura_, and _Tachyeres_; the number of primaries is eleven, and of secondaries from fifteen to twenty-eight, a horny spur being developed on the pollex, or even on the index, in _Plectropterus_, _Sarcidiornis_, _Chenalopex_, and _Merganetta_. The tail is, generally speaking, short, and may be narrow and pointed, as in _Anas_, _Dafila_, and _Harelda_; in _Aex_, _Querquedula_, _Tadorna_, and so forth, it is rounded; in _Chenalopex_ squarer; and in _Sarcidiornis_ and _Asarcornis_ more cuneate. In _Tachyeres_ the two median rectrices are long and recurved, and in the males of _Harelda_ and _Dafila_, they are inordinately produced; while all the feathers have spiny shafts and narrow webs in the Erismaturinae and Merganettinae. The number varies from twelve to twenty-four, with even more in Swans. In _Eunetta_ the upper and under tail-coverts exceed the tail itself.

The formation and disposition of the trachea[109] are of great importance. _Cygnus musicus_, _C. buccinator_, _C. bewicki_, and _C. columbianus_ have a peculiar cavity in the sternum, while the windpipe, entering in front of the clavicles, traverses and retraverses the swollen keel, which in old birds it penetrates to its furthest extremity, the direction being changed in the two last from vertical {113}to horizontal. _Anseranas_ shews a double loop in this organ,[110] and in the males of many Ducks an enlargement is found at its junction with the bronchial tubes, consisting of a round bony structure, termed the _bulla ossea_ or "labyrinth." Similar structures have been noticed in _Chenalopex_, _Dendrocycna_, _Chloëphaga_, _Plectropterus_, and _Sarcidiornis_; and in the Fuligulinae they shew apertures with membranous coverings; _Metopiana peposaca_, _Mergus merganser_, _M. serrator_, _Tadorna cornuta_, _Oedemia fusca_, and (doubtfully) _Oe. perspicillata_ are stated to have an additional bulb, but _Oe. nigra_ has none. _Clangula glaucion_ and the Merginae have a swelling in the middle of the trachea.

The headquarters of the Family are in the north, while Dr. Sclater's calculations,[111] though modified by subsequent discoveries, give a good idea of the distribution. He assigns as residents about seventy-seven species to the Northern Regions, forty-one to the Neotropical, twenty-nine to the Australian, twenty-two to the Ethiopian, and twelve to the Indian; twenty Geese out of thirty-three, seven Swans out of ten, and twenty-six Sea-Ducks out of thirty-one belonging to the first. Polynesia is especially poor.

The Anatidae are for the most part of similar habits, and frequent seas, lakes, rivers, and watery spots generally, being found to a great extent in winter on the shore, especially where mudflats are exposed by the ebbing tide, and beds of such food-plants as _Zostera_ (grass-wrack) are uncovered. Large flocks, which include many migrants, are formed at that season, and in spring the ganders and drakes commonly collect into parties while the female is incubating, which she does during twenty-one to forty-two days. Later in summer the majority of the Family shed their quills simultaneously, and conceal themselves until again capable of flight, the males then becoming dull in colour for several weeks, and resembling the other sex.[112] _Merganetta_ is found only on the torrents of the Andes; _Hymenolaemus_ and _Salvadorina_ being also residents on mountain streams. The noisy flight is extremely powerful, and much swifter than it appears, the wedge-shaped formation which Geese affect being especially noticeable; some forms, however, are practically flightless, such as _Nesonetta_ and the adult Steamer-Duck (_Tachyeres_). All the Anatidae swim exceptionally well, diving being carried to its perfection in the marine Fuligulinae; while the partially-submerged {114}position with erect tail when feeding is known to every one. The various Swans have a whooping, trumpet-like, or hissing note; that of Geese is a harsh cackle, a gaggling sound, a clang or a "honk." Ducks do not always quack, but have whistling or grating cries in addition. The usual food is vegetable, consisting of grass, _Chara_, _Zostera_, _Ulva_, and other plants; but Mergansers live chiefly on fish, and the bill of fare is varied by grain, pulse, berries, frogs, insect-larvae, worms, molluscs, and crustaceans. The nest is placed on the ground in thick herbage, or sometimes almost in the water; holes in banks, hollow trees, or even branches at a slight elevation being chosen in certain cases: it is composed of heather, grass, moss, leaves, or rarely seaweed and twigs, and is lined with down, added gradually from the parent's breast during incubation. The eggs, which vary in number from two (_Biziura_) to about a dozen, are smooth and hard-shelled, with a plain white, creamy, or green coloration, and are commonly covered when left. The young return for a time to the nest at night, and are carefully tended by the female, who is occasionally assisted by the male, especially in Swans. It is not certain how tree-building Ducks convey the nestlings to the water, though it has been stated that they are carried in the bill; but it is no uncommon sight to see ducklings and cygnets climb upon their mother's back and hide beneath her wings when danger threatens.

The sexes in Swans and Geese are usually alike, though exceptions occur, as in _Chloephaga_; in Ducks the male is generally much the finer bird, and has peculiar decorations, such as the elongated scapulars and rectrices of _Harelda_ and _Dafila_; the sickle-shaped secondaries of _Eunetta_, _Heniconetta_, _Arctonetta_, and _Somateria_; the stiff feathers on the face in the last three and Camptolaemus; the curly tail of _Anas boscas_; the crest, ruff, and sail of _Aex galericulata_; or the crests of many Fuligulinae and Merginae. Some females have similar but less striking adornments. Among the many instances of fine coloration may be mentioned the Red-breasted and Emperor Geese, the Harlequin, Mandarin, Pink-headed and Shoveller Ducks, the Sheld-Drake (Fig. 34), and the Goosander; while most Swans are pure white. The blue, green, or white speculum–or wing-bar–in various Ducks adds greatly to their appearance. The young are comparatively dull, the nestlings being thickly covered with yellowish down, furnished with barbs and barbules; the colour is, however, whitish or grey {115}in Swans, and occasionally brown, blackish, or greenish elsewhere.

Sub-fam. 1. _Merginae._–The commonest British species is _M. serrator_, the Red-breasted Merganser, which breeds plentifully in the Scotch Highlands and Ireland, and ranges over the northern parts of the globe, extending in winter from the Mediterranean to China, Japan, and the Bermudas. The head is glossy green-black with a long hairy crest, the neck is white with a black nuchal line, the upper parts are chiefly black, the large white wing-patch is crossed by two black bars, while white feathers edged with black adorn the sides of the breast, which is rufous with black streaks, and becomes reddish-white towards the abdomen. The female is brown, with reddish head and nearly white under surface. The bill and feet are red in this species and the next. _M. merganser_, the Goosander, nests sparingly in North Scotland, and has a similar range to the above abroad, though less abundant; it has a green-black head with little crest, a black back, almost white wings, and pinkish-white lower neck and under parts. The female has a blue-grey back, and lacks the wing-bars of the hen Merganser. The American species, with a black alar band, is separated as _M. americanus_, and the Central Asiatic form as _M. comatus_; _M. australis_, of the Auckland Islands, has a brown head and neck with long crest, a dark grey body with white bands below, a white speculum, and red-brown bill and feet; _M. brasilianus_, of Brazil, is black above with two bars on the white speculum, and white below barred with black, the bill and feet being greenish-black. The female has the crown and long occipital feathers brown. _M. albellus_, the Smew, ranging from Lapland eastward to Bering Island, but not to North America, and found in winter from Britain and the Mediterranean to North India, China, and Japan, is mainly white, with blackish cheeks, occiput, back, remiges, rectrices, and two crescentic bands on each side of the breast, the bill and feet being lead-coloured. The female has a red-brown head and nape, brownish-grey upper parts, and a smaller crest than the male. _Lophodytes cucullatus_, the Hooded Merganser of North America, which has strayed to Greenland and Britain, has black upper and white under parts; the dense compressed crest has the posterior part white in the middle, the white speculum shows a pair of black bars, two black crescents mark each side of the breast, the long inner secondaries {116}are black and white, the bill is black, the feet are brown. The female has a red-brown crest, brown chest, and upper surface.

The members of this Sub-family are shy and wary sea-birds, seldom found on fresh water except during the breeding season; they fly well, walk clumsily, and dive admirably, swimming low in the water. The cry is a plaintive whistle or loud harsh note; the food consists of little but fish. The Red-breasted Merganser breeds in holes in banks, or among grass and heather, laying up to ten brownish-green eggs; the Goosander deposits from eight to thirteen, of a fine creamy colour, in similar places, or in hollow trees; the Smew and the Hooded Merganser prefer the latter, and lay some eight creamy or ivory-white eggs respectively.

Sub-fam. 2. _Merganettinae._–_Salvadorina waigiuensis_ of Waigiou has the head and neck blackish-brown with paler edges to the feathers, a white chin, black upper parts barred with white, and buffish-white under parts with brown abdominal spots; the sides are barred with black, and the black and green speculum is bounded by two white bands. The bill and feet are yellowish-brown. _Hymenolaemus malacorhynchus_, the Blue Duck of New Zealand, is lead-blue, tinged with olive on the head and spotted with chestnut on the breast, the outer secondaries shewing a little white and the inner black. The whitish bill has the dependent membrane (p. 111) black, the feet are brown. This peculiar and tame torrent-duck is rarely seen on the sea, though it can fly from one gorge to another; it swims and climbs the boulders with ease, has a whirring note, and feeds chiefly on insect-larvae. It deposits five creamy eggs in holes or under tussocks of grass. _Merganetta armata_, of Chili, is black above with white edges to the feathers, and rufous with black streaks below; the head and neck are white, with black crown, vertical eye-stripe, throat, chest, and streaks down the back and sides of the neck; the bronzy-green speculum has a white band on each side, the bill is yellow, the feet are reddish. _M. frenata_, of Chili, is very similar; _M. turneri_, of South Peru, has a white throat and rufous edges to the feathers of the back; _M. leucogenys_, of Peru, has a whitish throat and breast; while _M. garleppi_, of Bolivia and Tucuman, and _M. columbiana_, of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, differ but little from the last-named. The females are grey and black above and uniform cinnamon below. These curious Ducks are restricted to the torrents of the Andes, where they {117}are found in pairs, plunging in the cascades, diving below the boulders, or stemming the impetuous current with equal facility.

[Illustration: FIG. 33.–Musk Duck. _Biziura lobata._ × ⅐. (From _Nature_).]

Sub-fam. 3. _Erismaturinae._–_Biziura lobata_, of Tasmania and Australia–except the north–is brown with buff mottlings, the bill and its leathery appendage being greenish-black and the feet dusky. The smaller female has less chin-lobe. This species frequents the sea as well as lakes, roosts in trees, and when diving remains long submerged; the food consists of mussels, leeches, and aquatic worms; the note resembles the dropping of water. The nest, placed on a stump or in a bank, contains two olive eggs; the musky smell of the sitting female having suggested the name of Musk Duck.

_Erismatura_ contains seven "Lake Ducks," inhabitants of fresh-water lagoons, which dive like Grebes, and remain with only the bill exposed; they are often tame, and when disturbed splash along the surface like a Moor-hen, to settle again almost immediately; in swimming the spiny tail is carried erect, suggesting a comparison to a "two-peaked saddle." The note is said to be a curious inward sound; the food is of fish, {118}molluscs, and insects; while the nest, built in rushy places, contains up to ten coarse-grained white eggs.[113] _E. leucocephala_, ranging from the Mediterranean to Southern Siberia, and in winter to North-West India or, exceptionally, to Holland, is rufous-brown with black vermiculations and bars, black crown and neck-ring; the rest of the head and neck being white, the bill blue, the feet dusky. _E. jamaicensis_, of Central and temperate North America, _E. ferruginea_, of Bolivia and Peru, _E. aequatorialis_, of Ecuador, _E. maccoa_, of South and East Africa, _E. vittata_, of southern South America, and _E. australis_, of South and West Australia and Tasmania, are brown with greyer belly mottled with dusky; the head and neck being black, except for the white cheeks and chin in the first-named and the chin only in the second and third. _E. aequatorialis_ has white instead of rufous under tail-coverts; _E. maccoa_ has white axillaries as opposed to grey in _E. vittata_; _E. australis_ is much deeper chestnut. The females are decidedly duller. _E._ (_Nomonyx_) _dominicus_, of Central, Southern, and, accidentally, Eastern North America, has the feathers of the back black in the middle and a white speculum. _Thalassiornis leuconota_, of South and East Africa with Madagascar, is variegated with black and ochreous yellow, the rump being white, the wings, tail, and feet brownish, the bill blue-grey. It dives much, flies little, and lays about four greenish eggs.

Sub-fam. 4. _Fuligulinae._–_Somateria mollissima_, the Eider Duck, breeds commonly in Northern Britain, and thence to the Taimyr Peninsula eastwards and the Coppermine River westwards, birds from North-East America being separated as _S. dresseri_; while _S. v-nigrum_, differing in its black V-shaped throat mark, occupies North-East Asia and North-West America. In winter the first-named strays as far as South Europe and the United States; the second has occurred in Holland. The male Eider has white upper parts and buff chest, black lower back, abdomen, and crown, the last showing a white streak; the wing- and tail-quills are brown, the stiff nape-feathers green, while the plumage extends in a peak on the culmen. The female is brown, with blackish bands or stripes and two white alar bars. The bill and feet are olive-green. _S. spectabilis_, the King-Eider of the Northern Arctic Regions, rarely wandering in winter to Britain, France, New Jersey, and California, has the head blue-grey with green and white cheeks, and a black chevron on the throat; the remaining portions {119}being black except for the buff breast, white neck, upper back, lesser wing-coverts, and a patch on each side of the rump. The feet and the bill, with its vertical black-edged disc at the base, are orange. The female is redder than in the Eider, with a more feathered culmen. These species are essentially maritime, only coming to shore to breed; they are semi-gregarious, and form a nest of grass and rubbish, a quantity of down underlying the five to eight oily-green eggs. Eider-down is chiefly procured from Iceland, Greenland, and protected islands in Norway. The flight is low and heavy, the food consists of mussels, starfish, and other sea creatures. _Arctonetta fischeri_, the Spectacled Eider of Alaska, is chiefly white, with dark grey rump and under parts; the head being varied with green and decorated with pendent bristly plumes on the occiput, stiff frontal and loral feathers, and a satin-like quadrangular patch outlined with black on each side. The tail- and wing-quills are brown, except the falcate inner secondaries; the feet are brownish, the bill is orange in the male. The female is fulvous and black with bluish beak. _Heniconetta stelleri_ breeds on the Arctic shores mainly between the Taimyr Peninsula and Alaska, and has strayed to Britain and even France. The head, falcate scapulars, and inner secondaries are white with blue-black outer webs to the two latter, the rest of the wing-quills and tail brown; the back, throat, neck, and a spot on each side of the breast purplish-black; the lores and short occipital tuft green, the lower parts mostly tawny. The female is brown with darker markings, and duller wing-bar. _Camptolaemus labradorius_, the extinct "Pied Duck" of the North Atlantic coast of America, was black, with white head, neck, chest, scapulars, and most of the wings except the primaries; it had a black stripe down the crown and stiff cheek-feathers. The brownish female shewed a white speculum.

_Oedemia nigra_, the Scoter or Black Duck, which nests in North Scotland, ranges over Northern Europe and Asia to the Taimyr Peninsula, sometimes reaching the Azores and the Mediterranean in winter. It is black, with a yellow nasal patch and a swollen base to the culmen, the female being dark brown with greyish face and throat, and no protuberance or yellow mark. _Oe. americana_ of North-East Asia and North America, migrating to Japan, California, and New Jersey, has the knob yellow with red sides, while the female is grey-brown. _Oe. fusca_, the Velvet Scoter, extends from Scandinavia to West Siberia, and occurs {120}exceptionally in Greenland, visiting us in winter, though rarely reaching Spain and the Adriatic; it is black with a white speculum and mark under each eye, the bill being orange with black posterior swelling and lateral line, and the feet dull crimson-red. The brownish female has the white speculum, but a brown bill. The very similar _Oe. deglandi_, of North-East America, has the base of the maxilla entirely feathered, as has the still blacker _Oe. carbo_, of North-East Asia. _Oe. perspicillata_, the Surf-Scoter, accidental in Britain and North-West Europe, inhabits the far north of America and the Asiatic coasts of Bering Straits, wintering down to Jamaica and California. The black plumage is relieved by white patches on the crown and nape; there is a black mark on each side of the crimson, scarlet, and orange bill, the feet are crimson, orange, and black. The brown female has yellowish-orange feet. Scoters are gregarious birds, usually found some way from land except when breeding; the flight is strong; the note guttural, but softer in spring; the food consists of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans. They nest near fresh-water lakes and pools, among heather or grass, and lay from five to eight yellowish-white eggs.

_Cosmonetta histrionica_, the Harlequin Duck of Iceland, North-East Asia, Arctic America, and possibly the Urals, which reaches Japan, the United States, and exceptionally Britain and elsewhere in winter, is grey-blue, curiously marked with black and white on the head, neck, wings, and chest; the superciliary streaks and flanks are chestnut, the speculum being purple, the bill plumbeous, the feet brown. The female is brown with whitish cheeks and mottlings below. The habits of tumbling and diving in rocky torrents have been well described by Mr. Belding;[114] the nest is in banks or under boulders, and contains seven or eight buff eggs. _Harelda glacialis_, the Long-tailed Duck of the Arctic Regions, which appears to breed in Shetland, and in winter even reaches the Mediterranean and China, but more commonly the Caspian, Lake Baikal, Japan, and the middle United States, is at that season white with brownish patches on the sides of the neck, brown-black back, wings, central rectrices, and chest. In summer the crown, neck, and scapulars become brown, with rufous edges to the dorsal plumage. The bill is pinkish and black, the feet are bluish. The female is brown, with white ocular region, neck-ring, and lower parts. This noisy species is called, from its musical chattering note, "Calloo" in Shetland {121}and "Old Squaw" in America; it flies very swiftly and nests near water, laying from six to twelve oblong grey-green eggs.

_Clangula glaucion_, the Golden-Eye, not yet proved to breed in Britain, though it does so in North Germany, the Caucasus, Siberia, and Maine, besides the Arctic Regions generally, is found in winter to the Mediterranean, and thence to North India, China, Japan, Mexico, and Cuba. The glossy head is green, with a slight crest and white cheek-patches; the upper parts are black with white on the wings and scapulars, the lower surface being white, the bill black, the iris golden, the feet orange. The female has the head and back brown, the chest grey. Similar to _Fuligula_ in general habits, the Rattlewing, as it is often termed from its noisy flight, is more partial to inland waters in winter, while for breeding it prefers hollow trees, or nest-boxes set up by Lapps and Finns, the ten or twelve eggs being bright green. _C. islandica_, the ordinary species in Iceland, differing from _C. glaucion_ in its purplish head, inhabits Arctic America also, and winters in the United States, rarely straying to Britain or the rest of Europe. _C. albeola_, the Buffel-head, of North America, which has visited the Commander Islands and Britain, has the head purplish-green with a large white occipital patch, the iris brown and the feet pinkish. It breeds to the northward, the eggs being whitish.

_Tachyeres cinereus_, the Logger-head or Steamer Duck, of Chili, the Falklands, and Straits of Magellan, is grey in both sexes, with lighter head, rufous throat, white secondaries and belly, orange-yellow bill and feet. The narrow median rectrices are curled up, the wings very short; while the adults apparently lose the power of flight. Darwin well describes the noisy splashing action, the rapid and flapping swimming movements, the weak diving powers, the strong beak adapted for extracting shell-fish, and the voice like that of a bull-frog.[115] From seven to nine eggs are laid among herbage or low bushes.

_Fuligula marila_, the Scaup, of Northern Europe, Asia, and America, which migrates to the Mediterranean and Black Seas, North India, China, and Guatemala, has the head, neck, and chest greenish-black, the back vermiculated with black and white,[116] the wings and tail dusky, the speculum and under parts white, the bill and feet plumbeous. The female is chiefly brown above, with {122}white round the base of the bill. _F. affinis_, of North America, has the head purplish; _F. cristata_, of the whole Palaearctic area, breeding freely in Britain and apparently in the Abyssinian highlands, while wintering in India, Japan, China, the Malay Archipelago and Polynesia, is distinguished by an occipital crest, and in the male by a black back. _F. novae zealandiae_, of New Zealand, the Auckland and Chatham Islands, has a purple and green gloss above, a few white dots on the back, and rufous-brown abdominal feathers, the latter being brown and white in the female. _F. collaris_, of North America generally, has a violet tinge on the black portions, a chestnut collar, a blue-grey speculum, and white under parts barred with dusky; the bill shows two whitish bands; the female has white lores and throat.

_Nyroca ferina_, the Pochard, which breeds not uncommonly in Britain, ranges from Iceland to Japan, and in winter to North Africa, India, and China; it has a chestnut head and neck, a black gorget, and upper parts finely freckled with black and white; the speculum is grey, the quill-feathers and rump are black, the lower parts greyish-white; the bill is black, banded with dull blue, and the feet are bluish. In the female, or Dunbird, the head, neck, and chest are dull reddish and the back browner. _N. americana_, of North America, has a purple shade on the head and neck, a white belly, and no black at the base of the bill. The female has a grey-brown head. The larger _N. vallisneria_, the Canvas-Back of the same country, which breeds in the north-west, has the crown and comparatively long bill black. The female has some white on the head and neck, and is vermiculated with white on the back. _N. baeri_, of Eastern Asia, has a green-black head and neck, but is chiefly brown, with a black-edged white speculum and whitish wing-quills, the female being duller with a chestnut cheek-patch. _N. africana_, the White-eyed Duck of British Lists, breeds from Central Europe to the Mediterranean basin, and from the Ob Valley to Cashmere, wintering southwards to the Canaries, Abyssinia, and Arrakan. It has a chestnut head, neck, and chest, a white spot on the chin, blackish-brown upper parts, a brown collar, a black-edged white speculum, a little white on the primaries, and white lower surface, the bill and feet being plumbeous and the irides white. The female is duller with browner head. _N. innotata_, of Madagascar, has a darker head and no chin-spot. _N. australis_, of most of the Australian Region, is not dissimilar, but has a brown tip {123}to the white speculum and some brown on the belly. _N. brunnea_, of South and East Africa, is brown, mottled with grey above, the head and upper neck being dark purplish-chestnut, the lower neck black, the speculum white with a black posterior band. Some white shows on the primaries, and the bill and feet are plumbeous. The female has white at the base of the bill, on the throat, and behind the eye. _N. nationi_, of Peru, is hardly distinct.

The majority of these two genera are wary sea-birds, though breeding inland; they feed at dawn or dusk on aquatic plants and seeds, molluscs, insects, and even small fish and frogs, chiefly obtained by diving, wherein they are great adepts. _Vallisneria spiralis_, a plant largely eaten by the Canvas-Back, accounts for its specific name and possibly for its flavour. The note is a grating or guttural sound, varied by a low whistle; the nest is generally close to water, and contains from six to thirteen green eggs. _N. africana_, _N. australis_, and _Fuligula novae zealandiae_ are rather more skulking species with weaker flight, rarely found at sea.

_Metopiana peposaca_, of South America, northward to Chili and South Brazil, is black with grey vermiculations above and on the belly, the cheeks and upper neck are purplish, the speculum and inner primaries chiefly white, the bill and its swollen base carmine, the feet yellow. The female is brown, with whitish under parts and grey on the wing. It frequents marshes on the Pampas, has a rapid heavy flight, utters a long hoarse note, and lays a dozen creamy eggs.

_Netta rufina_, the Red-crested Duck, found from the Mediterranean to the Caspian and Turkestan, or to India in winter, rarely occurs in Britain or North Europe, and is recorded once from America; it is chiefly greyish-brown above and blacker below, with a large crest on the chestnut head, white speculum and sides, red beak and feet. The crestless female is duller, with whitish cheeks and throat.

Sub-fam. 5. _Anatinae_ or typical Ducks.–_Heteronetta atricapilla_, of South Brazil, Uruguay, Chili, and Argentina, is dark brown above with black head and rufous vermiculations, and white below with dusky markings; the tips of most of the wing-feathers are white, the bill is blackish with basi-lateral flesh-coloured spots, the feet are brownish. The female's head is brown. _Stictonetta naevosa_, of West and South Australia and Tasmania, is brown with freckles and spots of white in either sex. _Marmaronetta angustirostris_, ranging from South Europe and North Africa to India, and {124}occurring in the Canaries, is greyish above, with brown and buff marblings, and whitish below with brown bars. It flies low, utters a croaking whistle, and lays ten or eleven buff eggs in isolated tussocks. Both sexes of _Malacorhynchus membranaceus_, the Pink-eyed Duck of Australia and Tasmania (p. 111), are grey-brown with lighter dots, and some white on the face, wing, and tail; the under parts are whiter with brown bands, while behind each blackish eye-patch is a pink mark, situated below a dark line running to the occiput and down the nape. The bill is greenish, and the feet are emerald-coloured or yellowish. This species is a fearless denizen of still waters, with a habit of laying its six rich buff eggs in old Herons' nests, in holes in trees, or on flat branches.

_Spatula clypeata_, the Shoveller, which now breeds in many parts of Britain, extends from about the Arctic Circle to North Africa, Central Asia, and the United States, wintering southward to Casamance, Somaliland, Ceylon, Borneo, China, Japan, Colombia, and the West Indies, and visiting the Hawaiian islands, the Gilbert Group, and Australia. It is dark brown, relieved by a green head, white neck, chestnut breast and belly; the longer scapulars being black with white median stripes, the wing-coverts pale blue, the speculum green with white anterior border, the bill plumbeous, the feet orange. The female is red-brown with duller wings, while the bill of the young shows the spoon-shaped form in about three weeks. _S. rhynchotis_, of Southern Australia, Tasmania, and the New Zealand area, has a dark brown crown, and blue-grey neck, with a white lateral line, the chest being whitish and the lower parts chestnut, both with black bands; _S. platalea_, ranging from Peru and Paraguay to Patagonia and the Falklands, is reddish with round black spots, having a black crown and rump; whereas _S. capensis_, of South Africa, has a grey-brown head and neck, and brown mantle and under parts with darker mottlings. The wings and scapulars are similar in all the above, except in _S. capensis_, where the latter are dark blue-green. The females hardly differ from each other, but that of _S. rhynchotis_ is darker, that of _S. platalea_ has a shorter bill, while in both sexes of _S. capensis_ the speculum has a blue tinge. Shovellers are somewhat silent birds with a peculiar habit of swimming and feeding in circles over spots where Diving Ducks are submerged[117]; the diet includes herbage, worms, molluscs, crustaceans, and insects; the eggs are pale green.

{125}_Querquedula circia_, the Garganey, which breeds (p. 126) regularly in East Anglia, ranges through most Palaearctic countries, and extends in winter to North Africa, a great part of the Indian Region, and the Moluccas; it has a brown crown, back, and chest, the last-named with darker crescents, a chocolate neck with white flecks, a white streak above the eye, bluish-grey wing-coverts, green speculum with white margins, and long black and white scapulars. _Q. discors_, its North American representative, reaching Ecuador and Peru in the cold season, is redder, with lead-coloured head, a white crescent before the eye, and brighter wing-coverts. The brownish females have a dull speculum. _Q. versicolor_, of America south of Paraguay, and _Q. puna_, of Peru, Bolivia, and Chili, have plumbeous wing-coverts; _Q. cyanoptera_, of western and southern South America, has the head and lower surface chestnut.

The flightless _Nesonetta aucklandica_, of the Auckland group, hardly differs in colour from _Elasmonetta chlorotis_, of the New Zealand area, which is brown waved with black and rufous above, chestnut and reddish with black spots below, the speculum being green and black, the gorget whitish. The female is rufous brown.

_Dafila acuta_, the Pintail or Sea-Pheasant of the northern regions generally, reaching North Africa, Ceylon, the Sandwich Islands, Panama, and elsewhere in winter, has a brown head and nape, a white line down each side of the neck, grey upper parts vermiculated with dusky, long black scapulars and rectrices mostly edged with white, a purple-green speculum margined in turn with black and white, a cinnamon bar on the wing-coverts, and a white breast. The female is greyish with brown speculum and ochraceous barring above, the markings being oblique on the tail. It now breeds in Scotland. _D. eatoni_, of Kerguelen Island and the Crozets, has a grey breast; _D. spinicauda_, ranging from Peru and South Brazil to Patagonia and the Falklands, has a rufous head and blackish speculum, the sexes being nearly alike, as in the next genus. _Poecilonetta bahamensis_ of the Bahamas, Antilles, and South America, _P. galapagensis_ of the Galapagos, and _P. erythrorhyncha_ of South and East Africa with Madagascar, are somewhat similar birds, having reddish plumage spotted with black, whitish cheeks and throat. In the first two the tail is buff, in the third the bill is chiefly pink, the speculum in all being much as in _Dafila_.

_Nettion crecca_, the Teal, extending from Britain over most of Europe and temperate Asia, and nesting even in the Azores and {126}Kuril Islands, winters in North Africa, India, Ceylon, Siam, China, and Japan, and wanders to North America. The head is chestnut with a green eye-patch enclosed by a buffish line, the upper parts are vermiculated with black and white, the speculum is black, green, and purple with a whitish border, the chest is buff with black spots, the under parts are white. _N. carolinense_ of North America, which strays to Europe–including Britain, has a white crescent on each side of the breast. _N. formosum_ of East Siberia, met with in winter in China, and accidentally in India, Italy, and France, has the head varied with black, green, buff, and white, a bluish wash on the back and chest, a speculum of buff, green, and white. In these three species the female is mottled with brown and rufous, and has a duller speculum. _N. castaneum_ of Australia and New Zealand, recorded from Celebes and Java, the doubtful _N. gibberifrons_ of the Malay Archipelago, _N. albigulare_ of the Andamans, _N. bernieri_ of Madagascar, _N. capense_ of South and East Africa, _N. flavirostre_ of America south of Southern Brazil and Chili, _N. andium_ of Ecuador and Venezuela, _N. georgicum_ of South Georgia, _N. punctatum_ of South and East Africa with Madagascar, _N. brasiliense_ of South America generally, and _N. torquatum_ of Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, complete the genus. Teal are fresh-water Ducks, feeding chiefly at night on water-plants, seeds, worms, and insects; they are rather silent, and have not the rattling spring-note of the Garganey. The nest is in both cases usually placed at some distance from water in grass, rushes, or heather, the eight to ten eggs being greenish in the Teal and cream-coloured in the Garganey.

_Mareca penelope_, the Wigeon, which breeds in Scotland, and ranges across North Europe and Asia to Alaska, occurring in winter as far south as Madeira, Abyssinia, Borneo, or even Polynesia, and occasionally on the American coasts, has a rufous head with buff crown, blackish throat and quill-feathers, white upper parts vermiculated with black, white wing-coverts and lower surface, and a green speculum with a black edge. The female is mottled with brown and rufous above, and has a grey-green speculum, and buffish lower parts. This species, which has a whistling cry, whence it is termed "Whew," feeds chiefly by day on grass-wrack and the like when frequenting the mud-flats in winter; the nest is among dry heather or rushes, and contains from seven to ten greenish-buff eggs. _M. americana_, of North {127}America generally, has a whitish head with black spots, which cover the crown in the female only. _M. sibilatrix_, reaching from Chili and Paraguay to Patagonia and the Falklands, is chiefly black and white with blue-green nape and black speculum.

_Chaulelasmus streperus_, the Gadwall, which breeds in East Anglia and South Spain, and is apparently spreading thence, occurs in the subarctic regions of both Worlds, and migrates to Shoa, India, China, Mexico, and Jamaica. _C. couesi_ of the Fanning group may be distinct. The head and upper neck are light brown with dusky spots; the back is blackish with grey markings, the rump black; the lower parts are white with black crescents on the breast; the wing-coverts grey, chestnut, and black. The female is dark brown varied with rufous. The speculum is white. The habits are as in most fresh-water Ducks, the eggs being buff.

_Eunetta falcata_ of East Asia and Japan is a fine bird with chestnut crown, bronzy-purple cheeks, green occipital crest, white neck ringed with green, grey and black upper parts, and lower surface waved with black and white. The white-margined speculum is green, the long thin sickle-shaped inner secondaries are black and white, and a patch on each side of the tail is buff. Both upper and under tail-coverts exceed the rectrices. The female resembles that of the Gadwall, but has a black speculum.

_Anas boscas_, the Mallard or Wild Duck, ranges from about the Arctic Circle to the Azores, North Africa, Cashmere, and the United States, being found southward in winter to India and Panama. The head is green with a white collar, the upper parts are grey and brown, the rump is black, the speculum purple with margins of black and white, the breast chestnut, the four curly central rectrices being black. The female is brown and buff with a green speculum. In the habits there is little that is peculiar, but the eggs are greenish. The coloration in the remaining species is usually dusky, nor do the sexes differ greatly. _A. wyvilliana_ inhabits the Hawaiian, and _A. laysanensis_ the Laysan Islands; _A. melleri_ Madagascar; _A. obscura_, with its two local forms _A. fulvigula_ and _A. maculosa_, Eastern North America; _A. diazi_ and _A. aberti_ Mexico; _A. luzonica_ the Philippines; _A. superciliosa_ the Malay Archipelago and Australian Region; _A. poccilorhyncha_, with red, yellow, and black bill, India, Ceylon, and Burma; _A. zonorhyncha_, where the bill is yellow and black and the feet reddish, Eastern Asia; _A. undulata_ and _A. sparsa_, also with yellow and black bill, but {128}black and orange feet respectively, South and East Africa; _A. specularis_, Chili and Patagonia; and _A. cristata_, with a pendent nuchal crest, America from Peru southwards.

[Illustration: FIG. 34.–Sheld-Drake. _Tadorna cornuta._ × ⅐.]

_Tadorna cornuta_, the Sheld-Drake or Bargander, which ranges from Britain across Europe and temperate Asia to Japan, and migrates to the Mediterranean basin, North India, and South China, has the bill and the basal knob–wanting in the female–red, the feet pink, the head glossy green; it shews a white collar on the lower neck followed by a broad chestnut band; blackish outer scapulars, remiges, and tip of the tail; a patch of chestnut on the inner secondaries, a green speculum, and a brown line down the under parts, the remaining portions being white. This bird frequents sandy coasts and muddy flats throughout the year, nesting in burrows, or rarely among rocks, masonry, or bushes, and laying some ten shiny white eggs. The flight is powerful and heavy; the note is a shrill whistle or barking quack; the food consists of aquatic plants, molluscs, and insects. _T. radjah_, of Australia, Papuasia, and the Moluccas, is white in both sexes, with blackish scapulars, back, rump, primaries, and rectrices; the mantle is vermiculated with chestnut, the similarly-coloured pectoral band is barred with black, the speculum is green with black posterior margin, the bill and feet are whitish. It breeds commonly in {129}holes in trees, on which it is quite at ease. _Casarca rutila_, the Ruddy Sheld-Drake or Brahminy Duck of South Europe, North Africa, and temperate Asia, which has strayed to Britain and winters in India, Burma, and Formosa, has a buff head, separated from the orange-brown body by a black collar in summer, white wing-coverts, black wing- and tail-quills, purple and green speculum, and black bill and feet. The female is lighter, with no collar. It frequents fresh water, grazes on corn and grass like a goose, and breeds in holes of any sort. _C. cana_ of South Africa differs in its grey head, rufous collar, and black vermiculations above, the female having the front of the head white. _C. variegata_ of New Zealand is black relieved by grey, the neck being brown, the anal region and inner secondaries chestnut, the wing-coverts white, the speculum green. The hen-bird has the head white, the lower neck, back, and under parts chestnut, varied with black and white. _C. tadornoïdes_, of South and West Australia and Tasmania, has a glossy green head, white collar, rufous lower neck and chest, black body with fulvous mottlings, white wing-coverts, chestnut inner secondaries, and green speculum, the head of the female being brown.

_Chenalopex aegyptiaca_, the "Egyptian Goose," found in Palestine and Africa, is rusty or buffish-grey, marked above with black, and with red, white, green, and black on the wing. The nape and collar are rufous; the breast shews a maroon patch, the bill is pink and black, the feet are pink. It has a loud, harsh cry, feeds on land, and lays rather small creamy eggs in cavities of rocks, on trees, or even among rushes. _C. jubata_, of Amazonia and Guiana, is grey, with greenish-black back, wings, and tail, ruddy mantle and belly, purplish-green wing-coverts, and white speculum. The sexes are alike in this genus and the next.

In _Dendrocycna_, containing the Tree-Ducks, which occur mostly in the tropics, the main colour is chestnut or dusky-brown, with dark nape and black rump or belly; but the head may be lighter, the throat or wing-coverts varied with white, or the flanks barred with black and white. _D. viduata_, of the Ethiopian and Neotropical Regions, has the front of the head white; _D. autumnalis_, of Central America, and _D. discolor_, its greyer representative in northern South America, have red bills and whitish feet; _D. arborea_, of the Bahamas and Antilles, has strongly spotted lower parts, as has the larger _D. guttata_, of Mindanao, Celebes, New Guinea, and the Moluccas; _D. fulva_, of the Ethiopian, Neotropical, {130}and Indian Regions, has white upper and under tail-coverts; _D. javanica_, of the latter area only, has them chestnut above and fulvous white below; _D. arcuata_, ranging from the Malay Archipelago to Fiji, has the breast chestnut barred with black; _D. eytoni_, of Australia, which has strayed to New Zealand, has it yellowish-brown. These birds fly slowly and heavily, and perch regularly on trees, where they sway awkwardly about upon the branches; the note is a clear whistle or a chattering sound; the food consists mainly of fish and water-plants, sought at all times of day. In winter the flocks cause great damage to corn or rice near the lagoons and other waters they frequent. The nest, placed in hollow trees, stumps, long grass, or deserted habitations of other birds, contains from six to twelve white eggs.

Sub-fam. 6. _Chenonettinae._–_Chenonetta jubata_ of Australia has a brown head, long black feathers on the hind-neck, greyish upper parts with black tail, rump, and edges to the scapulars, a green speculum with white borders, a breast mottled with black, grey, and whitish, and a black abdomen. The female is paler, with dull speculum and white belly. It lays its creamy-white eggs in the bush districts in hollow trees, perching even on the tallest of them, and uttering a barking note. _Cyanochen cyanoptera_, of Abyssinia and Shoa, is grey-brown in both sexes, with black wings relieved by lead-blue coverts, and green speculum tipped with white. _Chloëphaga hybrida_, the Kelp Goose of Patagonia and the Falklands, which lives and breeds on the beach, is white, having a black bill with basal yellow spot, and yellow feet. The female is brownish-black with white rump, tail, and anal region, and black lower parts barred with white; the neck shews narrow white bands on its sides, the black and white wing has the greater coverts green, and the bill is flesh-coloured. _C. melanoptera_, of Western America from Peru southwards, is distinguished by brown and white scapulars, black primaries and tail, green and purple wing-coverts, red bill and feet; the female being similar. _C. magellanica_, the Upland Goose, coextensive in range with _C. hybrida_, is white, barred with black above; the rump, four median rectrices, and wings being grey-black, with green and white on the wing-coverts, and white secondaries; the bill and feet are dusky. The female is rufous and black, with similar wings but yellow feet. _C. inornata_, of Chili, Argentina, and Patagonia, differs in having black pectoral bands and a grey head in the female. _C. poliocephala_, of the same {131}countries, with plumbeous, and _C. rubidiceps_, of the Falklands, with cinnamon head, have in both sexes chestnut and black plumage, the wing being as in _C. magellanica_, the bill black, the feet black and orange. _C. melanoptera_ will nest in holes in cliffs.

[Illustration: FIG. 35.–Red-breasted Goose. _Bernicla ruficollis._ × ⅐.]

Sub-fam. 7. _Anserinae._–In this group the female resembles the male. _Nesochen sandvicensis_, of the Sandwich Islands, has a black head and throat, brown plumage barred with whitish and black, and buff sides of the neck with black stripes. It inhabits craters and "lava-flows" on hills, and is fond of berries. The members of the genus _Bernicla_, or Black Geese, are grey and black, with a varying amount of white, and have black bills and feet. _B. brenta_, the Brent Goose, our commonest winter species, is brownish-black, with darker head, neck, and breast, white tail-coverts and lateral neck-patches. It is found in the Arctic Regions, and migrates as far as the Mediterranean and the Mississippi. It feeds by day in shallows on grass-wrack, laver, crustaceans, and insects, has a loud note, and lays about four cream-coloured eggs. From western Arctic America to the Lena occurs the form _B. nigricans_ with white collar and black belly. _B. leucopsis_, the Bernacle Goose, migrating to the same districts as _B. brenta_, abounding on our west coasts in winter, and occupying in summer Arctic Europe and Greenland, where it is supposed to breed, has nested in one place in Norway. The front of the head is white, the crown and neck are black, the mantle is lavender-grey marked with black and white, the under parts are greyish. Unlike the Brent Goose, it feeds at night. _B. canadensis_, of temperate North America, wintering down to Mexico, has a triangular white patch on each side of the black {132}head, and is comparatively large; _B. hutchinsi_ is a smaller and more Arctic form, _B. minima_ and _B. occidentalis_ north-western races of the same. _B. ruficollis_, the Red-breasted Goose of West Siberia, which migrates southwards, strays to Britain, and is portrayed in the paintings of Egypt, is black, with white loral patch, rump, sides and belly, the ear-coverts, fore-neck, and chest are chestnut outlined by white, and the two wing-bands are grey.

_Philacte canagica_, the Emperor Goose of North-East Asia and North-West America, is blue-grey with black and white bars, the head and nape being white tinted with orange, the throat brownish, the bill purplish-blue with white nail, and the feet orange.

_Cycnopsis cycnoïdes_, the Chinese Goose of East Asia, is mainly grey-brown above and whitish below, with rufous edges to the feathers; the head and neck are white with a brown band down the crown and nape; the bill is black, or in the domesticated form red with a frontal knob; the feet are orange.

_Anser cinereus_, the Grey-Lag, which nests in North Scotland and as far south as Spain and Kashgaria, ranges from Iceland to China, the Eastern race being called _A. rubrirostris_; _A. albifrons_, the White-fronted Goose, is found in Britain and most Palaearctic countries in winter, and chiefly eastward of Norway in summer; _A. segetum_, the Bean Goose, another of our hibernal visitants, breeds from Scandinavia to Amurland, and migrates southward to Madeira, North Africa, China, and Japan; _A. brachyrhynchus_, the Pink-footed Goose, extends over North Europe, and is common with us in the cold season; _A. indicus_ inhabits Central Asia and North India. _A. middendorffi_ (_grandis_) of East Siberia is a large form of the Bean Goose; while the small _A. erythropus_, once shot in Britain, has a similar range to the White-fronted Goose, of which both it and the big _A. gambeli_ of North America may be considered sub-species. The general coloration in this genus is grey-brown; in the Grey-Lag the bill and feet are flesh-coloured with white nail, in the White-fronted Goose orange, the latter having a white forehead and white breast with black bars. In the Bean and Pink-footed Geese the nail is black, but the bill and feet are orange-and-black and pink respectively. _A. indicus_ is lighter, with brown hind-neck, and two black crescents on the back of the white head. All these Grey Geese feed chiefly by day among green corn, stubble, peas, beans or clover, retiring at night to sand-banks or mud-flats in {133}winter; the note, often syllabled "honk-honk," is at times almost a cackle, whence the flocks or "skeins" are called "gaggles." The nest, placed in herbage or heather, is of grass, moss, twigs, or aquatic plants, and contains five or more whitish eggs.

_Chen hyperboreus_, the "Wavy" of North-East Asia and North-West America, with its larger Eastern American race, _C. nivalis_, and _C. rossi_ of Arctic America–which wander south in winter, while the first has occurred in Britain and North Europe–are white, with black primaries, purplish-red bills and feet; _C. rossi_ having a warty base to the maxilla. _C. caerulescens_, of eastern North America, is grey-brown, with white head, bluish rump and wing-coverts. The food consists of rushes, insects, and berries.

Sub-fam. 8. _Cereopsinae._–_Cereopsis novae hollandiae_, the Cape Barren Goose of South-East Australia and Tasmania, is grey-brown, with large yellow cere, chiefly reddish-orange feet, black toes and beak. More terrestrial than its nearest kin, it lays similar eggs. The very large extinct _Cnemiornis_, of the superficial deposits of New Zealand, was a close ally, with aborted keel to the sternum and short wings useless for flight.

Sub-fam. 9. _Plectropterinae._–_Aex sponsa_,[118] the Summer Duck of North America and Cuba, accidental in Jamaica and the Bermudas, has the upper parts mainly glossy green, with purple cheeks, black neck-patches, and white stripes on the face and neck; the breast is chestnut with white spots, the throat and belly are white, the wing-coverts partly blue, the flanks brown, black, and white; the bill is black, white, yellow, purplish, and scarlet; the feet are yellow. It has a long occipital crest. The female is grey-brown with metallic gloss, a white throat and eye-space, plumbeous and black bill, and brownish feet. This inland species feeds on insects, seeds, leaves, and acorns, and lays buff eggs in holes in trees. _Aex galericulata_, the Mandarin Duck of East Asia, is somewhat similar, but has a neck-ruff of narrow chestnut feathers streaked with whitish, a chestnut and black "fan" formed by the decurved innermost secondary, a copper, purple, and green crest, and a red-brown bill. The female is brown, grey, and white.

_Nettopus pulchellus_, of Australia, New Guinea, and the Moluccas, has the upper parts and neck-collar dark green, the head browner, the remiges and rectrices black with a white wing-bar, the cheeks and lower parts white, the sides marked with {134}green crescentic bands, and the bill and feet black. _N. coromandelianus_, extending from the Indian Region to Celebes, has a white neck, a brown band across the breast, and the flanks freckled with grey; _N. albipennis_, of East Australia, is similar but larger; _N. auritus_, of West and South Africa with Madagascar, has a sea-green patch on each side of the occiput, the lower part of the neck and the flanks being rufous. The females are much duller. These Pigmy Geese frequent small lakes and dive admirably; the note is a cackle; the nest, placed in holes in trees or ruins, if not among grass, contains from six to twelve white eggs.

_Pteronetta hartlaubi_, of West Africa, is chestnut with black head and blue wing-coverts in both sexes. _Rhodonessa caryophyllacea_, of India and Burma, is rich brown dotted with whitish, the head and nape being pink, the speculum salmon-coloured, the bill reddish-white, the feet blackish. It lays round white eggs.

_Asarcornis scutulata_, ranging from East Bengal to Java, has a black and white head, black mantle and under surface, greenish-olive upper parts, with black and white on the wings, a blue-grey speculum, reddish bill and feet. _Sarcidiornis melanonota_, of India, Ceylon, Burma, and the Ethiopian Region, is black with metallic hues above, and white below; the head and neck are black and white, the rump is grey, the tail brown, the feet, bill, and its basal comb or caruncle black. _S. carunculata_, of Brazil, Paraguay, and North Argentina, differs in its black rump. The comb is largest in the breeding season, and is wanting in females. These Wattle-Ducks perch on trees and breed in cavities of the trunks, laying a dozen or more white eggs. The note is harsh and the flight slow. _Cairina moschata_, the Muscovy–or more correctly Musk–Duck of ornamental waters, extends from Mexico to Argentina; the crested head, neck, and lower parts are brownish-black; the upper surface is glossy green, with purple on the back and white wing-coverts; the bill is black and white; the feet are black; and the frontal and orbital caruncles of the male red. It inhabits forest-swamps, roosts in trees, eats maize, mandioc roots, and herbage, and nests in holes in trees or between forking branches. _Plectropterus gambensis_ of Mid-Africa, _P. rüppelli_ of the North-East, _P. niger_ of the South-East, and _P. scioanus_ of Shoa, the four hardly separable Spur-winged Geese, are metallic black, with more or less white on the sides of the head, lesser wing-coverts, throat, and abdomen; the feet, bill, frontal knob, {135}and caruncles on the forehead when present being red. The female has no knob. They frequent marshes, appear to prefer running to flying or perching, and lay about eight whitish eggs.

Sub-fam. 10. _Anseranatinae._–This contains only _Anseranas semipalmata_ of Australia and Tasmania, a white bird with black head, neck, mantle, wings, and tail, reddish beak, and yellow feet. It haunts swamps, walks easily, and deposits some five white eggs.

Sub-fam. 11. _Cygninae._–In this group the sexes are similar. _Coscoroba candida_, of southern South America, is white, with black tips to the primaries, pinkish bill and feet. It feeds on land, has a loud trumpeting cry, and a less noisy flight than the true Swans, from which it differs in its feathered lores. _Chenopis atrata_, the Black Swan of Southern Australia and Tasmania, occasionally domesticated in England, is brownish-black, with white remiges, black feet, pink lores, and pink bill banded with white, the scapulars and inner secondaries being curled.

_Cygnus musicus_, the Whooper, which used to breed in Orkney, and ranges from Iceland through Arctic Europe and Asia, migrating to the Mediterranean, Nepal, China, and Japan, and straying to Greenland, is white with black feet and bill, the basal half of the latter being yellow, while that colour extends still further on the sides. The flight is accompanied by a rushing sound, the note is trumpet-like or whistling, the food consists of aquatic plants, the five or more white eggs are laid upon a pile of herbage near water. The smaller _C. bewicki_, where the yellow on the bill does not reach the nostrils, inhabits the Arctic districts from the White Sea to the Pacific, wandering in winter to Britain, the Mediterranean, South Siberia, China, and Japan. _C. columbianus_ of North America, said to have occurred in Scotland, has merely a yellow spot before the eye; _C. buccinator_, of the interior of North America, has a black bill; while _C. olor_, the Mute or Tame Swan, with its variety the Polish Swan, has the fore-part of it orange. _C. olor_ ranges from South Sweden and Denmark through Central Europe and Asia, migrating a little southwards. _C. melanocoryphus_, reaching from South Brazil and Chili to Patagonia and the Falklands, has the head and two-thirds of the neck black, with white eye-streak; the bill is plumbeous with red base and knob, the feet are pinkish. The protuberance is wanting in the young, which are marked with rusty, and have the head brown. Of other species immature birds are greyish or dusky, with flesh-coloured {136}and black beak, except in _C. olor_, where it is plumbeous. In habits Swans are much alike, though the notes differ somewhat, and the Mute Swan merely hisses or croaks in captivity; the latter and the Black Swan are noted for the graceful curve of the neck and their greenish eggs; while the wing-feathers and scapulars are habitually puffed out when on the water. Swans were "Royal Birds" in mediaeval England, and a licence was necessary to keep them, but for this subject and that of the "Swan-marks" on the bill, as well as for accounts of decoys, hybrids, and domestic races in the Family, the reader must be referred to the works of Professor Newton,[119] Count Salvadori,[120] and other authors.

[Illustration: FIG. 36.–Bewick's Swan. _Cygnus bewicki._ × ⅒.]

Fossil remains of this group are found throughout the Miocene of France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, referred to _Anser_ and _Anas_, with _Chenornis graculoïdes_; the Pliocene of Oregon has furnished _Branta_, _Cygnus_, and _Anser_, that of Italy _Anas_ and _Fuligula_; the Plistocene of Malta _Cygnus_ and _Palaeocycnus_, that of Brazil _Chenalopex_. The superficial deposits of New Zealand contain _Cnemiornis_, mentioned above, as well as _Chenopis_ and _Biziura_; the Queensland drifts the last-named, and, it is said, _Anas_, _Dendrocycna_, and _Nyroca_; the Mare aux Songes of Mauritius _Anas_ and _Sarcidiornis_. _Centrornis majori_ is a remarkable form {137}from Central Madagascar, found at a depth of twelve to fifteen feet with another species _Chenalopex sirabensis_.[121]

ORDER VII. FALCONIFORMES.

Next to the aquatic Anseriformes may be placed the large and important terrestrial Order Falconiformes, with its Sub-Orders CATHARTAE and ACCIPITRES. The former contains the New-World Vultures (_Cathartidae_ or _Sarcorhamphidae_), possessing striking differences of structure from their allies;[122] the latter, the Secretary-Bird (_Serpentariidae_), the Old-World Vultures (_Vulturidae_), the Carrion-Hawks, Hawks, Eagles, Falcons and their kin (_Falconidae_), and the Ospreys (_Pandionidae_). All agree in the strong "raptorial" bill with basal cere, the U-shaped furcula, the large crop, the carnivorous habits, the great powers of flight, the superior size of the female, and the long nest-occupation of the young; but the Cathartae differ in having pervious nostrils, no syringeal muscles, less flattened metatarsi, and so forth.

Fam. I. CATHARTIDAE.–These Vultures range from tropical to temperate America, and are often of immense size; the bill is strong, hooked, but blunt; the feet are clumsy with small scales; the scutellated toes, of which the mid-digit is longest and the hallux somewhat elevated, are unfit for grasping; the claws are obtuse and little curved. The ample wings have eleven primaries and from twelve to twenty-five secondaries; the moderate tail is even or rounded, with twelve rectrices, or fourteen in _Pseudogryphus_. The head and long neck are commonly bare, but the latter may be covered with stubbly down, which in _Gyparchus papa_ extends to the occiput; the naked skin is often brightly coloured and accompanied by caruncles, while the crop is bare in _Sarcorhamphus_ and _Gyparchus_. The eyes are prominent, the cere is horny and sometimes very long, the tongue thick and fleshy, the aftershaft absent. The sexes are alike in plumage, with evenly distributed down, and the nestlings soon develop a white or rufous covering.

Though, generally speaking, predaceous, the members of this Family only attack disabled animals, or often act chiefly as scavengers, whence the smaller forms are commonly found near the abodes of man and even in towns. The larger species sail high above the earth with easy, long-sustained, and majestic flight, {138}accompanied by little movement of the pinions, as they circle over the plains or mountain-sides in search of prey. In this quest experiments have shewn that they are little guided by smell; rather does some individual, aided by its marvellously keen sight, spy the carrion from afar, its motives being instantly divined by its immediate neighbour; a third bird is next attracted; and so the tidings spread, until a greedy crowd meets to dismember the carcass, to fight over the morsels, and then to sit stupid and gorged, with drooping wings, on or near the ground. Except when feeding, the Cathartidae are non-gregarious, though "Turkey-Buzzards" and "Black Vultures" roost in company; the latter are said to take to the wing with ease, eschewing the preliminary hops of their allies; while all walk well. The voice is a hoarse sound or hiss, owing to the absence of syringeal muscles. The nest of sticks is placed in trees, cavities of rocks, hollow stumps, or on the ground, and may be bulky or of the slightest description; the one or two eggs are white, buff, or greenish, with or without reddish-brown and grey blotches. The parents regurgitate food–at least occasionally–for the nestlings, and eject foul-smelling matter when disturbed.

_Sarcorhamphus gryphus_, the Condor, only equalled in size among birds that fly by a few Old-World Vultures, and appearing still larger in clear mountain air, ranges down western South America and up to the Rio Negro on the east of Patagonia. The head and neck are bare, with dull red skin, wrinkled in folds on the latter; while an oblique ruff of white down surmounts the black plumage, which shews white edges to the wing-coverts and secondaries. The male has a fleshy crest extending from the mid-cere to the crown, a large wattle on the throat, and a small caruncle below; the irides being in that sex brown, in the female garnet-red. The bill is white with brown base. Smaller and browner examples occur in Ecuador, but larger appendages mark those of Chili and Patagonia. In the southern portion of their range Condors are found down to the sea-level, but Mr. E. Whymper[123] states that in Ecuador they frequent the Andes up to sixteen thousand feet, and rarely descend to the plains. Stupid and voracious, they can be lassoed while feeding, and, though they will attack old horses, calves, lambs, goats, deer, and dogs, especially when dazzled by the sun, they seldom risk an assault on mankind. The nest, of a few sticks, is placed on steep cliffs, and contains two white eggs.

{139}[Illustration: FIG. 37.–Condor. _Sarcorhamphus gryphus_ ♀. × ⅛-⅑.]

A young bird was hatched in London after fifty-four days' incubation, but apparently nearly a year is taken to gain full powers of flight. _Gyparchus papa_, the King Vulture, of tropical America, save the West Indies, has a small fleshy crest on the cere in both sexes, but no wattles, though the skin of the sides of the head is wrinkled; the occiput is hairy, and a ruff of broad plumbeous feathers surrounds the neck. The rump, tail, and most of the wings are black; the remaining plumage being creamy white, the bare throat and back of the neck yellow, the skin of the head and neck elsewhere orange and red with blue patches near the ears, the bill orange and black, the irides white. This bird haunts woods near rivers and marshes, especially towards the coast, and feeds on snakes and carrion, from which it drives all other species; in flight, habit of gorging, and eggs, it resembles the Condor. Little smaller is the Californian Vulture (_Pseudogryphus californianus_), formerly extending to the Fraser River in British {140}Columbia, in which the long flat head and neck are bare, smooth, and orange-coloured, the bill being whitish and the irides carmine. The plumage is dull black with a whitish wing-band, due to the margins of the greater coverts and secondaries; lanceolate feathers form a basal ruff round the neck, and extend over the lower parts. The habits are similar to those of the foregoing, but the loose nest of sticks, placed in cavities of trees or crags, contains one rough greenish-white egg. The genus _Rhinogryphus_ or _Cathartes_ ("Turkey-Buzzard") includes _R. aura_, of temperate and tropical America, reaching to Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands, in which the head and upper neck are naked, smooth, and crimson; and _R. burrovianus_, found from Mexico to Brazil, where they are orange and the nape is feathered; the yellow-headed _R. perniger_, of Amazonia, being hardly separable. All are black with whitish bill, red irides, and a tuft of bristles in front of the eye; but the first has brown-margined feathers and metallic sheen above. In common with _Catharista_, they have the cere very long. During the day-time these quarrelsome scavengers, ubiquitous but necessary, haunt the house-tops and roadways of towns and villages, whence they retire at night to groves or forests in company; otherwise their habits are those of Vultures generally. They have been said to pair for life, while they deposit two whitish eggs with red-brown and lilac markings in some hollow of a crag, tree, or log, often on or near the ground, adding little, if any, bedding. _Catharista atratus_, the "Carrion Crow" or Black Vulture, which ranges from Argentina and Chili to the West Indies and Carolina, and occasionally further north, is most plentiful near the coast; the fearless demeanour, flight, manner of feeding, nesting habits and eggs, resembling those of Turkey-Buzzards, though the wing-action is more laboured, and the gait shuffling. Audubon says that the males strut and gesticulate like Turkeys when courting, while incubation lasts about three weeks. The colour is black, the naked head being dusky and the upper neck somewhat corrugated; the bill is blackish with light tip, the irides are brown.

Fossils referred to this Family are met with in North and South America.[124]

The points wherein the Cathartae differ from the Accipitres {141}having been already noticed (p. 137), it only remains to discuss in detail the several families comprised in the latter Sub-Order.

[Illustration: FIG. 38.–Secretary-Bird. _Serpentarius secretarius._ × ⅑.]

Fam. II. SERPENTARIIDAE.–This contains only _Serpentarius secretarius_, the African Secretary-Bird–now generally recognised as an Accipitrine form–which is most common in the south, though extending northwards to the Gambia, Khartum, and Abyssinia. It was first accurately made known in 1769, from an example living in the menagerie of the Prince of Orange, by Vosmaer, who was told that at the Cape of Good Hope it was called "Sagittarius," or Archer, from its habit of striding like a bowman about to shoot, and that this name had been corrupted into "Secretarius." Subsequently–about 1770–a pair was {142}brought alive to England.[125] The appellation is evidently, however, derived from the nuchal tuft, which bears a fancied resemblance to the pen of a clerk stuck above his ear. Standing some four feet high on very long legs, this bird gives the impression of a Heron or Crane, and is a striking object on its native plains. The short strong beak is greatly arched, and is not toothed, the neck is elongated, the body comparatively small, and the metatarsus boldly scutellated all round, the short straight toes with their blunt claws being joined anteriorly by small membranes. The ample wings have eleven pointed primaries and seventeen secondaries; the graduated tail of twelve rectrices has the two obtuse median feathers drooping and much prolonged. Down is evenly distributed over the adults, and an aftershaft is present. The general colour is bluish-grey, with black wing-quills, lower back and vent; the loose pendent crest on the occiput and nape contains ten plumes in pairs, the longer being black and the shorter grey with black ends; the tail is grey, subterminally barred with black and tipped with white, which sometimes shews on the short close flank-feathers. The long cere, naked sides of the face, and feet are yellow, the irides hazel. The sexes are similar.

In South Africa these useful birds–favoured by a protecting law–are often brought up tame about the homesteads, where they kill reptiles and keep off feathered intruders, though they occasionally tax the poultry-yard themselves; the food consists of small mammals, birds, lizards, and tortoises, but above all of snakes and insects. When the Secretary attacks a reptile, it advances on foot and delivers a forward kick with its powerful leg, striking simultaneously with the knobbed wings, which shield its body; then it retreats with a bound, as the hissing snake makes a vicious lunge; but soon, watching its opportunity, breaks through its opponent's guard and stands triumphant with crest erect, before swallowing the disabled foe.[126] If, however, the snake touches the bird's flesh, the result is reversed; and so well, according to Mr. Atmore,[127] does the latter know this, that it plucks out instantly any feather that the fangs have reached. Possibly reptiles are occasionally killed by being carried aloft and dropped. Usually seen stalking easily along, this graceful species can almost out-pace a {143}horseman, while it will fly when hard pressed, or soar to a considerable height. The huge nest, occupied from year to year, is placed in a bush or tree, and is composed of sticks and clay with a lining of wool and hair, the two or three eggs being white with rusty markings. In six weeks the downy white young are hatched, which remain some four months in the nest, often uttering a harsh cry. The legs of both nestlings and adults are very fragile, and snap if they trip while running.

A fossil form (_S. robustus_) has been recorded from the Lower Miocene of Allier in France.

Fam. III. VULTURIDAE.–The Old-World Vultures have a strong hooked bill–exceptionally slender in _Neophron_–which may be sinuate, but has no tooth. They possess a horny cere; a comparatively short, stout, reticulated metatarsus, often partly feathered; scutellated toes on a level, with bluntish slightly curved claws, and a short membrane between the outer and mid digits. They lack the bony ridge found over the eye in the Falconidae. The somewhat pointed wings are long and broad, with eleven primaries and from seventeen to twenty-five secondaries; the moderate tail, ordinarily of twelve feathers, is rounded, but varies to wedge-shaped in _Neophron_, where, as in _Gyps_, there are fourteen rectrices. The plumage is compact; the crop prominent; the head and neck are bare or sparsely-haired in _Otogyps_ and _Pseudogyps_, more or less downy in _Vultur_, _Lophogyps_, and _Gyps_, and partly feathered in _Neophron_; while a ruff of down or plumes covers the shoulders. The nostrils are circular in _Vultur_, horizontally elongated in _Neophron_, oval and vertical elsewhere; the fleshy tongue may show bristly or upcurved margins, and the syrinx has two pairs of tracheo-bronchial muscles. Uniformly distributed down and an aftershaft characterize the adults, while the white woolly nestling of _Gyps_ is said to be hatched naked.[128] Except as regards _Neophron_, the habits resemble those of the Cathartidae, the carrion diet producing a most offensive odour. The plumage of the sexes is the same.

_Vultur monachus_ (_cinereus_), the Black Vulture, has its headquarters in the Mediterranean Region, whence it extends to the Gold Coast, Nubia, the Lower Danube, North India and China, and has strayed to Denmark. Not unlike the more sociable Griffon Vulture in general habits, it shows a preference for wooded country, {144}constructing a bulky shallow nest of sticks, grass, and wool almost invariably on trees, and laying one, or rarely two, white eggs blotched with dark red. The plumage is brownish-black, with a ruff of lanceolate feathers below the bare neck, and black down on the crown and throat. The naked skin and cere are of a livid flesh-colour, the feet yellowish; the bill is black, the iris brown. _Lophogyps occipitalis_, of East and South Africa and Senegal, is dark brown with blacker remiges and rectrices, and some white on the wings; the reddish head and neck are bare, except for white down on the crown, which thickens towards the occiput; the ruff is brown, the abdomen and crop are white, the feet pinkish; the bill is orange with bluish cere, the iris brown. _Otogyps auricularis_, of North-East and South Africa, called the "Eared Vulture" from the fleshy lappets (of the same pinkish colour as the naked head, cere, and feet) on the sides of the neck, is brown, with blackish wings and tail, varied by white down on the thighs and chest; a brown ruff covers the hind-neck, while the bill and irides are yellow. _O. calvus_, the smaller Pondicherry- or King-Vulture of India, Burma, and Siam, is black. These birds usually hunt in pairs, driving all intruders except Eagles from their prey: they construct immense stick nests, often used in successive years, on thick bushes or trees; straw, leaves, and the like being added for lining, and one white egg, often with red-brown markings, deposited. _Gyps fulvus_, the Griffon Vulture, which has occurred in Germany, Poland, and once in Britain, breeds from the Spanish Pyrenees through Southern Europe and Northern Africa, reaching lat. 50° N. in Russia, and extending eastward to North India, by way of Turkestan, where it overlaps the larger form _G. himalayensis_. It is fawn-brown above and streaky buff below, with nearly black wings and tail, the adults having a downy white ruff, represented in the young by a brown collar; the head is thinly covered with white hairs, the beak is horn-coloured with blue-black cere, the feet are plumbeous, the irides orange. This active though cowardly species is often seen basking on rocks at mid-day; it flies or hovers with easy movements, and can soar until it almost disappears in the sky. It has a growling note. The nest, a mass of sticks and grass of variable size, is placed on cliffs, and contains one or even two white eggs, sometimes with rusty markings. Incubation lasts forty days, the young remaining three months in the nest. _G. kolbi_ of South Africa is much paler; _G. rüppelli_, of the north-east and south of {145}that continent, has a yellower head and browner back; _G. indicus_ of India and the Indo-Malay mainland; from which _G. pallescens_ is hardly separable, has a barer head and comparatively thin bill; the former breeds in trees in place of rocks. _Pseudogyps bengalensis_, the White-backed Vulture, ranging through India and down the Malay Peninsula, is black above, but brownish below, with the thin downy ruff and lower back white; the bill is greyish, the cere, feet, naked head and neck are black, the irides brown. This bird snorts, hisses, or even roars, and walks easily, though awkwardly. It nests in company on trees, and often lines the large stick-fabric with foliage, as do so many other Raptorial forms; the greenish-white eggs, seldom marked with red, vary much in bulk. _P. africanus_, of North-East and West Africa, is decidedly browner.

The genus _Neophron_ contains the smallest Vultures, _N. percnopterus_ being called, from its frequent occurrence on Egyptian hieroglyphs, the Egyptian Vulture or Pharaoh's Hen. It has wandered thrice to Britain and also to North Europe, while it breeds from Savoy and Provence to Madeira, the Canaries, the Cape Verds, North Africa, and India, meeting in the last-named the smaller _N. ginginianus_; in winter it visits South Africa, where it is called the "White Crow." The plumage is white, with black primaries and partially brown secondaries; a ruff of lanceolate feathers extends up to the occiput, the naked head and neck are yellow, the tip of the bill alone being black; the feet are pink, the irides crimson. Often seen striding sedately along in search of animal and vegetable refuse or dung, this species also follows the plough and devours worms, grubs, insects, reptiles, and frogs; while from its alleged habit of breaking bones left by other Vultures, it is called Quebranta-huesos or "bone-smasher" by the Spaniards.[129] The flight is slow and easy, the voice a croak. The flat nest of sticks, lined with soft materials, and especially rags, is placed on a crag or tree, and contains two white eggs with red-brown or claret blotches. _N. pileatus_ of South Africa–which has a larger north-eastern and western form–is brown, with black wings and tail, downy whitish nape, purplish naked areas, dusky bill and feet, and brown irides.

Of fossil forms there are recorded _Gyps melitensis_[130] from the Plistocene of Malta, and _Vultur_ from that of France.[131]

{146}Fam. IV. FALCONIDAE.–This group may be divided into the Sub-families (1) _Gypaëtinae_ for the Lämmergeiers; (2) _Polyborinae_ for the "Carrion Hawks"; (3) _Accipitrinae_ for the Hawks, with _Circus_, _Polyboroïdes_, and so forth; (4) _Aquilinae_ for the Eagles; (5) _Buteoninae_ for the Buzzards and Kites; and (6) _Falconinae_ for the Falcons.

Though the skull is small in _Circus_ and some other forms, it is usually large and broad, being considerably elongated in the Aquilinae. The short stout bill is strongly curved, and terminates in a hook, which is often nearly perpendicular, and is specially prominent in _Rostrhamus_, _Leptodon_, _Harpyhaliaëtus_, _Pithecophaga_ and _Thrasaëtus_; the basal third is straight in Eagles, while the edges of the maxilla are lobed or festooned to a variable extent, and in the Falconinae are distinctly toothed, or even bidentate in the case of _Spiziapteryx_, _Harpagus_, and _Baza_. A bony ridge over the eye conduces to the fierce aspect, especially in the larger species. The feet are robust and well-fitted for grasping, and are enormously developed in _Thrasaëtus_; the metatarsus is much flattened, and may be scutellated or reticulated, though the scales are usually smaller behind; the tibia generally exceeds it in measurement, but in Accipitrine forms is nearly equal, giving them a long-legged appearance. Elongated bare metatarsi are characteristic of _Circus_, _Polyboroïdes_, and the Polyborinae. The claws are sharp and curved, especially in _Rostrhamus_; a short membrane connects the middle and outer toes, and the inner also in the Polyborinae; while their under surface is more or less padded, and exhibits rugose spicules below in _Busarellus_, similar to those in _Pandion_. The powerful wings may be long and pointed, as in the Kites, Falcons, and Harriers; moderate and somewhat rounded, as in the Eagles and Buzzards; or short and narrow, as in Hawks. Falconers term the long-winged forms "noble," the short-winged ignoble. The tail, usually of medium size, but sometimes very short, as in _Helotarsus_ and _Gypohierax_, is decidedly elongated in the Accipitrinae and _Polyborus_, and also in _Milvus_, _Lophoictinia_, _Elanoïdes_, and _Nauclerus_, where it is forked–very deeply in the two last: it may be wedge-shaped, as in _Uroaëtus_, _Thalassaëtus_, _Harpyhaliaëtus_, and _Gypaëtus_; rounded, as in _Elanus_ and _Haliaëtus_; nearly even, as in _Buteo_ and _Aquila_; or emarginated, as in _Ictinia_ and _Rostrhamus_. Normally there are twelve rectrices, but _Thalassaëtus_ has fourteen. The colour varies greatly with age, {147}and it often takes four years or more to attain maturity, the markings commonly changing from longitudinal to transverse; but the sexes are usually alike, though the Kestrel, Merlin, Red-footed Falcon, and many Harriers are well-known exceptions, the last having generally blue-grey males and brown females. The occipital feathers are elongated in several of the Polyborinae, and a full crest occurs in many genera, _Lophoaëtus_, _Thrasaëtus_, _Harpyhaliaëtus_, _Helotarsus_, _Morphnus_, and _Lophoictinia_ being especially noticeable; _Circus_ has a facial ruff, coupled with exceptionally large aural apertures; the feathers of the neck may be lanceolate, as in _Haliaëtus_, or those of the nape, as in _Aquila_; and the plumage commonly over-hangs the metatarsus, which is feathered to the toes in various Aquiline forms, and in _Archibuteo_. The nostrils are circular in the Falconinae, oval or nearly linear elsewhere, with a central tubercle in the last-named and the Polyborinae, seldom found in the other Sub-families: they are generally in or near the cere, which is almost always fleshy. An aftershaft is present; the down in adults is uniform; that of the nestling being woolly and varying from white to grey, buff, brown, or black. The feet are yellow, red, or brown; the bill is ordinarily dark, and the cere yellow; _Gypaëtus_, however, has all these parts bluish-grey, with a crimson sclerotic membrane (equivalent to the "white of the eye") round the orange iris, the latter being yellow or orange in the Accipitrinae, brown in the Falconinae, and varying to red elsewhere. The syrinx has two pairs of tracheo-bronchial muscles; the tongue is thick and often concave; and Nitzsch[132] has recorded single or paired powder-down patches on the lower back of _Elanoïdes_, _Elanus_, _Regerhinus_, and _Circus_, with similar but scattered down-feathers in _Gypaëtus_.

The members of this Family range in size from the mighty Lämmergeier to the tiny Finch-Falcon (_Microhierax_); but they have many habits in common, though _Polyborus_ and _Milvago_ are somewhat terrestrial and vulturine, and a few species have crepuscular tendencies. They are decidedly non-gregarious, though the Polyborinae, _Erythropus_, and _Rostrhamus_ form

## partial exceptions; they pair very early in the year, if not for life, the

larger forms in especial breeding almost before winter is over. Birds of the mountains, the plains, and the woods, they can bear the cold of the icy regions or the heat of the Equator, but towards {148}either pole the number of species decreases perceptibly. The sight is exceptionally keen, and the flight generally powerful and rapid; Eagles and Buzzards indeed move heavily to all appearance, as they circle or sail around with flapping

## action, but the spectacle of the former in chase of a grouse will quickly

disillusion the observer. Kites are still more versatile upon the wing, nor are the Polyborine forms always deficient in this respect, while the dash and speed of Hawks and Falcons in their different styles is proverbial.[133] Harriers and the like may be seen buoyantly quartering the ground for hours, poising themselves almost motionless aloft, or gliding in circles to great heights; and the hovering or stationary position on the wing, which gives the name of "Windhover" to the Kestrel, is more general than might be supposed throughout the Family. Taken as a class, few birds can fly so well or so untiringly, though Vultures, Cranes, Storks, Albatroses, and the larger Gulls have even greater powers of endurance; they can, moreover, perch with great facility, and, while seldom running or walking fast, can move with freedom upon the ground, where they generally progress by means of hops, and aid themselves with their wings. Many of the Falconidae are very quarrelsome, and use their talons as weapons of offence, this trait being emphasized at the nesting-quarters, whence feathered intruders are rigorously excluded. The cry is shrill, but varies in depth; in the Peregrine Falcon it is a succession of short notes, in Eagles it resembles a yelp, in Buzzards a cat's mew, in Kites a whistle, and so forth; whereas in _Melierax_ it may almost be called a song. The diet varies considerably, and consists of mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, frogs, tortoises, crabs, molluscs, and insects. _Gypohierax_, _Aquila_, _Haliastur_, _Milvago_, and _Polyborus_ certainly eat carrion, and the last will attack newly-born lambs–a grievance made the most of by sheep-farmers in the case of Eagles; while the larger forms kill fawns, monkeys, foxes, hares, and other creatures of considerable size. Buzzards keep down rabbits, and hunt rats and mice as assiduously as Harriers and the Kestrel; the latter devours quantities of insects, as do also some of the Polyborinae; and the so-called "Honey" Buzzard (_Pernis_) gains its name from its fondness for grubs of bees or wasps. Kites work havoc among poultry; the Golden Eagle, and still more the Peregrine Falcon, among moor-fowl; the last two proving an {149}advantage in Scotch deer-forests, where the noisy grouse disturb the stags, but being in peril of extermination on the moorlands; yet it is questionable whether more good than harm is not done by the destruction of weakly game. The Osprey and Sea-Eagle eat little but fish, though they are not alone in that habit, while _Rostrhamus_ lives almost entirely on fresh-water molluscs. Most members of the Family do not alight to capture their prey, but seize it with their sharp talons either sitting or on the wing, the chief exceptions being the carrion- and insect-eaters; it is often conveyed to some favourite spot of ground or rock to devour, smaller objects being transported in the bill and the bigger torn to pieces and stripped before being swallowed. Large bones may be broken up, slender bones bolted entire; but hard substances are always ejected subsequently as pellets, after the manner of Owls (p. 401), the nature of the diet being readily detected from these castings. Exceptionally curious habits are credited to _Gypaëtus_ and _Gypoictinia_, as will be seen below. After a meal, quiescence is the rule, but none of the tribe gorge like Vultures. The predilections of species or even of individuals determine the situation of the nest, Eagles and other large forms preferring rocks in mountain-glens, lofty cliffs, or trees, for their bulky fabric of sticks, heather, and the like, which is lined with softer substances, and often bedded with foliage. The larger Falcons frequently select ledges on sea-girt or inland crags, and merely scrape a hole in the soil; but they, in common with the lesser Falcons, also utilize deserted habitations of Crows and so forth, or even lay their eggs on level ground or upon crumbling masonry; while the American "Sparrow-Hawk" (_Tinnunculus sparverius_) commonly appropriates old holes of Woodpeckers. Harriers, _Rostrhamus_, and other forms choose sites in reed-beds, gorse-coverts, fern, rough grass, or corn, and eschew hard materials; Hawks usually construct a flat platform of branches lined with thinner twigs. The eggs are generally bluish-, greenish-, or yellowish-white, with fine blotches, streaks, and spots of red, brown, or claret, chiefly towards the larger end; but in Falcons they are more or less covered with ruddy or orange markings, which often obliterate the ground-colour. Unspotted specimens are not uncommon, and in the case of Harriers we have an instance of a plain bluish coloration, a few rusty stains being exceptionally visible. Alternative sites are frequently tenanted, or former nests repaired. Incubation is often of {150}considerable duration, and the young remain long in the nest–four months, it is said, in the Lämmergeier; the longevity, too, of Eagles is notorious, a span of a hundred years having been actually recorded. Unconscious mimicry is shewn by _Accipiter pileatus_, which assumes the garb of _Harpagus diodon_ near Rio Janeiro.

[Illustration: FIG. 39.–Lämmergeier. _Gypaëtus barbatus._ × ⅛-⅑.]

Sub-fam. 1. _Gypaëtinae._–This group apparently links the Vulturidae to the Falconidae, but seems nearer to the latter. _Gypaëtus barbatus_, the magnificent Lämmergeier, is greyish-black with white streaks, and has a white crown, cheeks with a black band bifurcating at the eye to meet above, and pale tawny lanceolate plumage on the neck and lower parts. Dense black bristles cover the nostrils and lores, and a black tuft, which gives the name of Bearded Vulture, projects below the mandible. The sclerotic {151}membrane is crimson (p. 147). The young are chiefly brown and buff. From Portugal and Mauritania this species extends through the lofty mountains of South Europe to the Himalayas and North China, though practically exterminated in Switzerland and Carinthia; _G. ossifragus_ (_meridionalis_), with no black stripe below the eye, represents it in North-Eastern and Southern Africa. Avoiding its own kin, the Lämmergeier often breeds near Griffon Vultures; the large nest of sticks, lined with wool and hair, begun very early in the year, being placed in some cavity of a cliff or on a precipitous ledge, and containing one egg–or rarely two–which appear pale orange owing to the confluent markings. The flight is majestic and powerful; the cry weak and querulous, with a croak when irritated. In parts of Spain and India, natives assert that this bird preys only on carcases; but in Macedonia it is said to carry off lambs, kids, and fowls, and no doubt occasionally it kills small mammals and birds, though all statements should be carefully criticised, as it usurps the name of "Grifo" or Griffon in Spain, and that of Golden Eagle in India; while conversely any Eagle is pointed out in the Alps as a Lämmergeier. It has been credited with a habit of scaring young animals over the cliffs by descending with a sudden rush, but its nature is cowardly, and it does not seem to attack man; yet marvellous tales have been told of its strength and daring, some of which may in part be true, though the evidence is hardly convincing. Like _Neophron_, it is said to carry bones up into the air, letting them fall to break them, while land-tortoises are similarly treated in North Africa, and possibly this species is responsible for the death of the poet Æschylus, on whose bare head a tortoise is alleged to have been dropped.[134] _Gypohierax angolensis_, somewhat approaching the Vulturidae, is white, with the secondaries, most of the scapulars, the tips of the primaries, and the base of the tail black; the bare skin of the sides of the face and the feet are flesh-coloured, and the beak is grey-blue. Rare in East and South Africa, though common in the West, it is generally seen on lagoons, rivers, or sea-shores, sunning itself on some elevation, or skimming the water with laboured flight in search of fish. It will attack animals and eat garbage.

Sub-fam. 2. _Polyborinae._–Of the American "Carrion Hawks," _Polyborus tharus_ is dull black, with whitish neck, back, breast, {152}and tail, more or less barred with dusky, and broad blackish tips to the rectrices. The bare red skin of the cheeks and throat imparts a vulturine look, belied, however, by the almost gallinaceous feet. It inhabits South America from Ecuador and Guiana southwards; but thence the very similar _P. cheriway_ ranges to Florida and Lower California, _P. lutosus_ occurring in Guadelupe Island off the latter. The Carancho or Cáracara, as _P. tharus_ is called, resembles in habits the "Turkey-Buzzards" (_Rhinogryphus_), with which it consorts, though somewhat shy and quarrelsome. Semi-gregarious, and audacious if unmolested, it passes the hot hours in the shade, and roosts in company at night; while the powerful and graceful flight, with its alternate sailing or flapping movements, though not rapid, enables it to soar in spirals to a great altitude. It walks or runs with ease. The far-reaching grating note is usually uttered with the head thrown back; the food of refuse and carrion is supplemented by young lambs or alligators, birds, frogs, reptiles, land-crabs, worms, and insects. When on a tree, bush, or cliff, the large shallow nest, often renewed yearly, is made of sticks and lined with grass, leaves, roots, wool, or scraps of any sort; but, when on the ground or in swamps, reeds and herbage are commonly utilized. The three or four eggs ranging from white with red blotches to cinnamon with a few black marks.

_Ibycter_, _Phalcobaenus_, and _Senex_ are kindred Neotropical genera of a greenish-black colour, with a variable amount of white on the tail, lower parts, and even the wings and nape; the cheeks and throat are naked and red in the first, and orange in the second, while the cheeks only are yellow in the third. _Phalcobaenus_ has a slight crest, _P. carunculatus_ a fleshy orange caruncle at the base of the bill, _Senex_ rufous thighs. _Ibycter ater_ occurs in Amazonia, _I. americanus_ from Guatemala and Honduras to Brazil, _Phalcobaenus megalopterus_ from Chili to West Peru, _P. carunculatus_ in Ecuador and New Granada, _P. albigularis_ in Patagonia, while _Senex australis_ is the "Johnny Rook" of the Falklands. Close allies are _Milvago chimachima_ and _M. chimango_, ranging from Panama to Paraguay, and from about lat. 20° S. to Tierra del Fuego respectively; the former is brown, with creamy head, neck, tail, and under-parts, and rectrices barred with brown; the latter has the head rufous and black, the lower surface streaky-looking yellowish-brown, the tail greyer. The lores and naked orbits are pinkish.

These forms are similar in manners to _Polyborus_, but _Milvago_ is {153}more terrestrial, and chiefly frequents grassy plains; it is moreover less energetic, and has an easy and loitering though protracted flight, with a custom of uttering its whistling or mournful notes in chorus, the head being thrown back as in the Carancho. The nest of sticks, lined with grass, hair, and wool, may be on trees, in grass, or rushes, _Senex_ preferring sea-girt cliffs; the eggs, from two to five in number, are cream-coloured, or reddish with darker markings, and vary as in _Polyborus_. Human beings are very rarely molested by "Carrion Hawks," though birds seem to fear them greatly.

Sub-fam. 3. _Accipitrinae._–First of this group may be placed six genera of "Harrier-Eagles," classed as Circaëtinae by the late J. H. Gurney,[135] of which _Herpetotheres cachinnans_, ranging from South Mexico to Bolivia and Paraguay, is the only American representative. It is a crested bird, of a brown colour above, relieved by creamy buff, which extends over the whole under surface, the nape and face being mostly black. It eats snakes, and sits aloft bobbing its head while uttering a gruff "ha-ha." Of the African genus _Circaëtus_ one species, _C. gallicus_–Jean-le-blanc of the French–extends from Southern and Central Europe to Palestine, India, North China, Timor, and Flores. It is dark brown above, and white with blackish-brown streaks and bars below, the secondaries and tail having white tips, and the latter three dusky cross-bands. This sluggish but bold denizen of the plains may be seen perched on trees, quartering the ground with heavy flapping flight, or anon poising itself aloft on motionless wings, the harsh noisy cry being varied by a twittering note. Snakes form its favourite food, while frogs and fish from the shallows, small mammals, birds, lizards, crabs, and insects add to its daily fare. The bulky nest of sticks, bedded with grass or green leaves, is situated on trees, bushes, or even rocky ledges; a single bluish-white egg–or exceptionally two–being deposited. The female sits very closely, and both parents sometimes attack intruders. _C. cinereus_, of most of the Ethiopian Region, has the chest brownish-black and the belly white; _C. fasciolatus_ of Natal, and the similar _C. beaudouini_ of Senegal and North-East Africa, have the former part fulvous-brown, and the latter barred with dusky; _C. cinerascens_ of the east and west of that continent is much greyer below, with narrower bars. _Helotarsus ecaudatus_ of the whole Ethiopian Region is black, with maroon back and tail, and a broad grey band across the secondaries; {154}the wide crest, short rectrices, red cere, lores and feet, rendering it most remarkable. _H. leuconotus_ is hardly more than a creamy-backed variety. It sails aloft in powerful style, and dashes like lightning upon the snakes, mammals, and lizards, which form its prey; the nest of sticks is placed in trees or rocks, and contains, it is said, from two to four white eggs. The crested _Eutriorchis_ of Madagascar, and _Dryotriorchis_ of the Gold Coast, short of wing but long of tail, should probably be placed here. A fine broad crest also adorns _Spilornis_, of which genus some seven members occur in the Indian Region, and the Celebes group. _S. undulatus_ (_cheela_), extending from India to China, has the head black and white, the remaining plumage brown, with whitish markings above, round white spots below, and a broad light band across the white-tipped tail. _S. sulaënsis_ of the Sula Islands differs in being barred beneath; _S. holospilus_ of the Philippines has the whole body spotted. These arboreal forms live upon snakes, frogs, insects, and birds, the last of which they hunt in pairs, converging gradually on the victim from each side: the note is mournful; the small nest of twigs, lined with grass or leaves, is placed in trees; the two eggs are rufous or white with red markings.

The slender _Polyboroïdes typicus_, of most of the Ethiopian Region, combines the appearance of a Harrier with that of a typical Hawk; it is grey with white tips to the black remiges and rectrices, and shews black and white bars on the lower breast and abdomen. A whitish band crosses the tail, while the naked cheeks and cere are yellow. _P. radiatus_ of Madagascar is more silvery. Resembling the following group in habits, these birds prefer grasslands, especially when newly burnt, take comparatively short flights, and rest more frequently on trees or stumps. They are said to be able to bend the tibio-tarsal joint either way.

_Circus_, ranging over nearly the whole world, comprises some seventeen species, in most of which the sexes differ in coloration–an unusual fact in Raptorial forms. They are graceful and soft-plumaged, with long legs, wings, and tail, the partial facial ruff creating a likeness–superficial and not warranted by structure–to the owls. Non-arboreal and by nature shy, they may be seen hovering or circling aloft, or systematically beating over the flats with buoyant untiring flight, the pinions flapping slowly and regularly, and exposing a broad surface to the air. They can, however, move with rapidity, and approach their breeding-quarters {155}with a fine downward sweep, an exceptionally bold cock sometimes almost striking an intruder. The cry, chiefly heard during incubation, is shrill; the food consists mainly of small mammals, but partially of birds, reptiles, fish, frogs, insects, or even eggs; the nest, placed among reeds, corn or herbage, in gorse-coverts or on heathery or grassy slopes, is, according to circumstances, a pile or layer of the surrounding vegetation lined with the finer portions, and contains from three to six bluish-white eggs, rarely blotched with rufous. Nesting-sites in trees are on record. Three species still breed in Britain, _C. cyaneus_, the Hen Harrier, _C. cineraceus_, Montagu's Harrier, and _C. aeruginosus_, the Marsh Harrier or Moor Buzzard. The first two are much alike and easily confounded, the female in both being brown above and buffish with dark streaks below, while the tail is crossed by five umber bars. The male, which is bluish-grey with white rump and abdomen in the Hen Harrier, but is streaked beneath with rufous in the more slender Montagu's Harrier, is commonly considered a different species from the female by rustics, who call it the "Kite." These forms range over Europe, Asia, and North Africa; but whereas the first-named reaches about lat. 69° N. in summer, and occurs from Morocco and Abyssinia to Canton in winter, its congener is not found so far north, and migrates down to Cape Colony, Ceylon, and Burma. _C. aeruginosus_, now nearly exterminated in Britain, extends from South Scandinavia and Archangel to Japan, and to the Transvaal and Ceylon in the cold season. The upper parts are brown with blackish primaries, the remainder of the wings and the tail being grey; the lower surface is buff with brownish stripes. Old males have the head nearly cream-coloured, while the irides in the female are rather hazel than yellow. The North American _C. hudsonius_ is very near _C. cyaneus_; South America possesses _C. cinereus_, and, on the east, _C. maculosus_; _C. swainsoni_ reaches from South-East Europe to India and China, with Africa in winter; _C. ranivorus_ and _C. maurus_ occupy South Africa; _C. spilonotus_ and _C. melanoleucus_ East Asia, the latter being coloured black, white, and grey; _C. assimilis_ (_jardinii_)–marked with chestnut above, and spotted with white below–inhabits Australia and Tasmania; _C. gouldi_ (_approximans_) the same countries, New Zealand, and Fiji; _C. wolfi_ New Caledonia, _C. spilothorax_ Papuasia, _C. humbloti_ Madagascar, and _C. maillardi_ (with its variety _macrosceles_) that island, Réunion, and Anjuan (Joanna).

{156}_Micrastur_, a genus found in Central and northern South America, somewhat resembles _Accipiter_, being brown or blackish above, relieved by rufous or grey and white, and white or reddish below with or without cross-bars. _Geranospizias_ ranges further south, _G. caerulescens_, which is slaty-blue, with a few white bands beneath, reaching South Brazil and Bolivia, while the Central American _G. niger_ is nearly uniform black. The thighs are closely feathered, and the tibio-tarsal joint is said to act doubly. Five species of _Melierax_ or "Singing Hawk," reside in the Ethiopian Region, especially in the south, where _M. canorus_ is plentiful. This form is ash-coloured with black primaries, black and white tail, and white belly with greyish bars. The habits are bold, the flight is rapid, the food consists of small mammals, birds, reptiles, and locusts. The haunts are in rocky places or bush country; the nest of sticks, lined with wool and feathers, is placed in a tree, and contains from three to five whitish eggs. The mellow whistling or piping song is heard chiefly in the morning and evening, the wide-spread African _Asturinula monogrammica_ alone of the Family vying with it in sweetness.

_Astur_ comprises forty or more members, several of which have exact counterparts in the genus _Accipiter_.[136] The more robust build, shorter legs, and stouter toes serve as distinctions; but it must be noted that short wings, long legs, and bill without a notch mark all Accipitrine as opposed to Falconine forms. The descriptions below will be sufficient to shew the coloration, as the species, except _A. novae hollandiae_, are very similar. Inhabitants of the woodland and river-side, they are nearly cosmopolitan, though absent in parts of the Neotropical Region and in New Zealand; while several islands have peculiar races. _A. palumbarius_, the Goshawk, called of old the "Gentle Falcon," is now seldom observed in Britain, though once it nested in Scotland; it ranges throughout Europe and Asia to Morocco, and thence to the Himalayas and Japan, or slightly further south in winter. It is ashy-brown above, with four dark bands on the white-tipped tail, and is closely barred with brown and white below. Daring and rapacious, with marvellous power of steerage, it follows the abruptest turns of its victims with the greatest ease, gliding after them in a low, persistent style, termed by falconers "raking." The food consists of small mammals and birds, but _A. badius_ and _A. tachiro_ will eat {157}frogs, and the latter limpets; the large flat nest of sticks, rarely lined with roots, is placed in trees, the bluish-white eggs, numbering from three to five, being occasionally marked with rust-colour. The barely separable North American _A. atricapillus_ exhibits very close bars below; the crested _A. trivirgatus_, ranging from India and the Great Sunda Islands to Formosa, is slaty-grey, having a rufous chest, a white throat with black median streak, a tail with four brown bands, and white under parts barred with rufous and brown; _A. badius_, the Shikra, extending in its various sub-species from Central Russia, Servia, and Greece to China, and many parts of Africa, is blue-grey with five or six blackish tail-bands, a less distinct throat-streak, and salmon-coloured lower surface with narrow white cross-bars. _A. trinotatus_ of Celebes is blackish-grey, with lighter head, white spots on the median rectrices, uniform vinous breast, white throat and vent; the young are ferruginous-red above with black markings. Most remarkable of all is _A. novae hollandiae_ of Southern Australia and Tasmania–with its smaller race _A. leucosomus_ of Papuasia and the Cape York district–pure white in colour, with black bill, yellow cere and red irides, which some writers consider a permanent albino of _A. cinereus_. _A. hensti_ and _A. franciscae_ are confined to Madagascar, _A. brutus_ and _A. pusillus_ to Mayotte and Joanna Islands of the Comoros respectively. _Nisoïdes moreli_, also from Madagascar, a bird with stout bill and white irides, closely approaches _Astur_.

_Accipiter_ is a genus of some thirty species, which rival Goshawks in spirit and daring; they inhabit nearly the whole world, but hardly extend to Polynesia. The flight is quick and vigorous, with rapid turns; the prey being captured with a dash as the birds skim through the wooded country they frequent; while it is subsequently devoured on the ground, as is customary among Accipitrine forms. The large flat nest of twigs, occasionally lined with roots or leaves, is placed on a tree or rocky ledge; about four to six bluish-white eggs, usually with heavy blotches or spots of red-brown, being laid in the central depression. Very puzzling are the changes of plumage, though by no means confined to this genus; but the longitudinal spots below in the young are said generally to change with age to transverse bars, as is the case in the most typical Falcons.[137]

{158}[Illustration: FIG. 40.–Nest of Sparrow-Hawk. _Accipiter nisus._ (From _Poachers_.)]

The coloration is well shewn by _Accipiter nisus_, the Sparrow-Hawk, which breeds throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia north of the Himalayas; extending further south in winter, but represented in South Africa by _A. rufiventris_ and _A. ovampensis_ with white-spotted rectrices. It is bluish-grey above, with white mottlings on the nape and rufous cheeks, the white-tipped tail exhibiting from three to five dark bands, and the buffish-white under parts red-brown bars. Other species are blacker or browner, or more rufous below; _A. rubricollis_ and _A. erythrauchen_ of the Moluccas have the nape red; the latter, _A. rhodogaster_ of Celebes, _A. virgatus_ of India and East Asia (including _A. nisoïdes_), _A. hartlaubi_ of the Gaboon, and _A. ventralis_ of Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, have nearly uniform ruddy under parts; _A. erythrocnemis_ of Brazil and Bolivia, and _A. chionogaster_, ranging from Guatemala to Venezuela are almost white beneath; _A. bicolor_ of Central and South America having grey-blue for the white. _A. melanoleucus_ of North-East, West, and South Africa is deep black, with brown bars on the rectrices, and some white on the {159}tail-coverts and breast; _A. pectoralis_ of Brazil is brownish-black above, slightly relieved by white, the tail being greyish with black bands, the collar and chest rufous, the fore-neck and abdomen white, streaked and barred respectively with black. _A. minullus_ inhabits South Africa, _A. madagascariensis_ Madagascar, _A. cirrocephalus_ Australia, Tasmania, and Papuasia, _A. chilensis_ Chili, _A. guttatus_ Paraguay and Bolivia, _A. pileatus_ Brazil, _A. collaris_ New Granada; while the very robust _A. cooperi_ occupies North America southwards to Mexico, and _A. fuscus_ the same country to Panama. In _A. subniger_ (_tinus_), of Central and South America, and some other species, the young are red above. _Erythrotriorchis radiatus_ of East and Central Australia, a rufous bird with dark markings, which lays an egg like that of a Sparrow-Hawk, may perhaps be placed here, as may _Megatriorchis doriae_ of New Guinea, in which the blackish upper parts have lighter transverse stripes, and the white under parts longitudinal dusky streaks.

Sub-fam. 4. _Aquilinae._–The long-legged _Morphnus guianensis_, ranging from Panama to Amazonia, is black, with three ashy tail-bars, brown head and chest, and white rufous-banded abdomen; the fine crest is brown with black tip, the wing- and tail-coverts are varied with white. This bird haunts thick woods near water, and in habits appears to resemble the next two genera, which have similar soft plumage, short wings and long tails. _M. taeniatus_ of Ecuador has broader and blacker bars below. _Harpyopsis novae guineae_ of New Guinea, and _Thrasaëtus harpyia_, the Harpy, extending from Mexico, to Paraguay and Bolivia, have blackish-grey upper parts with a tendency to darker transverse markings; the tail shews six black bars; and the white under parts exhibit a greyish zone on the chest. The former species is, moreover, relieved by white above, while a bifurcated grey crest surmounts the white head and neck of the latter. Marvellous stories have been told of the fierceness and strength of the last-named, but despite its huge bill and legs, it seems never to attack man, though defending itself with spirit when wounded. Found in low-lying forests and near rivers, it may be seen wheeling in circles with slow heavy flight, or digesting its meals on low boughs of trees. The diet consists largely of mammals, including fawns, monkeys, foxes and peccaries; the nest is in high trees or cliffs. The Indians are very proud of a living specimen, while the down is used for decoration, and the feathers for arrow-making. _Harpyopsis_ devours wallabies.

{160}_Pithecophaga jefferyi_, a fine forest Eagle from the Philippines, with extremely deep and compressed bill, seems to belong here.[138]

The true Eagles–fierce but seldom courageous–inhabit wild mountains, plains, or forests; resembling Buzzards in their slow heavy flight, and rarely uttering their shrill cry or yelp. The prey is generally secured by a pounce; and carrion, if fairly fresh, is eaten. The nest of sticks or twigs, lined with grass, green foliage, fur or wool, especially the two first, contains from one to three large white eggs, with or without red or brownish markings.

The various species of _Spizaëtus_, _Limnaëtus_, _Lophotriorchis_, _Lophoaëtus_, _Neopus_, and _Nisaëtus_, with comparatively short wings, long tails, and large claws, are sometimes denominated Hawk-Eagles. Not usually shy, they are essentially denizens of wooded country, where some prefer the hilly districts, others the neighbourhood of streams; the food is extremely varied, including in different cases, monkeys, bucks, lambs, goats, hares, rabbits, birds as large as bustards and geese, lizards, frogs, or even fish; while the flight is more graceful and Falcon-like than in the genus _Aquila_, the note clearer and sharper. The moderately large nest is composed of sticks, and usually lined with green leaves or branchlets; the one or two eggs are white, ordinarily with light reddish-brown markings. _Spizaëtus coronatus_ of South and West Africa is blackish above, with a little white on the tail-coverts and remiges, and brownish tips to the triply-barred rectrices, the buff lower parts being broadly banded with black. _S. tyrannus_, extending from Guatemala to Brazil, is black beneath; _S. ornatus_, of Central and South America as far as Paraguay, has the nape and sides of the neck and chest tawny. These birds have an occipital crest, as have some members of the hardly separable _Limnaëtus_, of which _L. caligatus_, of India and the Malay countries, deep brown in colour, with ashy inner webs to the remiges, will serve as an example. _L. nipalensis_ and _L. cirrhatus_ inhabit India with Ceylon, and the former Formosa and Japan; _L. philippensis_ the Philippines; _L. alboniger_ Malacca and Borneo; _L. lanceolatus_ Celebes and the Sula Islands; _L. gurneyi_ New Guinea and the Moluccas; _L._ (_Lophotriorchis_) _kieneri_ India, Malacca, Borneo, and Batchian; _L. isidori_ north-western South America. _Lophoaëtus occipitalis_, of Africa south of the Sahara, is brown, except for a few white marks above, and has shortly-feathered white metatarsi. {161}Here the crest is extremely long, but in the nearly black _Neopus malayensis_, ranging from India to the Moluccas, it is much shorter. _Spiziastur melanoleucus_, extending from Guatemala to Brazil, is brownish-black, with white head, neck, and lower surface, the tail has four darker bands, and black marks shew towards the crest. In this species the inner claw and hallux are greatly developed. _Nisaëtus pennatus_, the "Booted Eagle" of South Europe, Africa, and thence to India and Ceylon, so called from the feathered legs, is brown above, with a white shoulder-patch, white tip to the barred tail, and various buffish markings; the head, neck, and under parts are fawn-coloured, with brown streaks except on the abdomen. _N. fasciatus_, Bonelli's Eagle, has a similar range, but reaches China, and not South Africa; it lacks the shoulder-patch, but is streaked on the abdomen. _N. morphnoïdes_ inhabits Australia and New Guinea, _N. spilogaster_ and _N. bellicosus_ Southern Africa, the last being slaty-black above, and having a plain brown chest.

The typical Eagle, the bird of Jove, the emblem of Rome and of St. John, was some species of _Aquila_. _A. chrysaëtus_, the Golden or Black Eagle, is exceptionally shot in England in winter–especially in the north; but it is the Sea Eagle that occurs most frequently. In North Britain the former has bred in increasing numbers since protection has been given in deer-forests, where it kills the grouse which startle the stalker's game; a few pairs remain in North and West Ireland; while in times past it ranged to the Peak of Derbyshire or even Snowdon. Abroad it occupies most of Europe, North Asia to India and China, North Africa, and North America to Mexico. Powerful and fierce by nature, and ready to attack animals of considerable size, it never molests man under ordinary circumstances; both parents, it is true, circle anxiously round when the young are in danger, but should the nest contain eggs, the hen, which sits closely, vanishes at once on leaving them. She does not reappear until all risk seems past, while the cock is seldom sighted at the eyry, though usually seen in the vicinity. The prey consists of antelopes, wolves, foxes, fawns, lambs, hares, rabbits, marmots, geese, ducks, grouse, and so forth, with carrion, if sufficiently fresh; the ground is often quartered at a low elevation, and wonderfully rapid in the chase is the flight of this apparently slow and ponderous bird, aided by its extraordinarily keen powers of vision. Solitary individuals may occasionally be approached by stalking, but in Britain they are generally wary, owing to constant {162}disturbance; they may, however, often be seen circling aloft or winging their way to great distances, while they can hardly be distinguished from Buzzards in misty weather even by experienced keepers. Captures are made with the talons, but Eagles are comparatively seldom trained for Falconry; yet the present species has been so used in Europe, as well as by the Kirgiz Tartars, who call it "Bergut" or "Bearcoot." The cry is shrill and yelping. The nest is commonly placed in a tree, though in Scotland such sites are seldom utilized nowadays, a projecting rock on the side of some bare mountain-glen or a sea-girt crag being selected instead. Here a cavity, rather than a ledge, is chosen, and a huge mass of sticks or heather is collected, with a bedding of hair, fur, wool, moss, dry fern and an occasional feather, or more commonly of tufts of _Luzula sylvatica_, garnished with an odd pine-shoot. Two or three eyries are often used in turn, the pile increasing on each occasion. At times the spot can be reached without a rope by a skilful climber, and in some countries nests have been found upon the ground. The two or three eggs–four being quite exceptional–are generally marked with red-brown, crimson, purplish or grey, but, though fine blotches are usual, one if not more of the set is frequently white. They are laid very early in spring and–as in other Birds of Prey–not always on successive days. The Golden Eagle is distinguished from the Sea-Eagle (p. 163) by the feathering reaching to the toes, which have only the last joint scutellated, and the remainder reticulated: the adult is normally blackish-brown, with tawny lanceolate nape-plumes and tail mottled with grey; the young have white bases to the rectrices. The colour, however, varies much.

_Aquila clanga_, the Spotted Eagle of British lists, and its smaller form, _A. pomarina_, range across Europe, except the most northern portions, and extend to North Africa, India, and North China, their respective distributions being somewhat uncertain. The colour is brown, with pale nape and light margins to the feathers of the wings and rump; the manners are those of Eagles generally, but the food includes frogs, reptiles, and grasshoppers, in addition to small mammals and birds. _A. hastata_ of India is hardly separable, and the African _A. wahlbergi_ is very similar, as is the larger _A. nipalensis_, the Steppe Eagle of the former country, Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia, and, exceptionally, North Africa, a plain brown bird with a fulvous nuchal patch. It commonly builds its nest {163}upon the ground. _A. adalberti_, the White-shouldered Eagle of Portugal, Spain, and North-West Africa–often wrongly called "Imperial,"–preys upon lizards, snakes, hares and rabbits, which it usually spies from a perch on some bare tree-top. It is black, with brownish neck, greyish base to the tail, and a broad white shoulder-patch, whereas _A. mogilnik_, the true Imperial Eagle, ranging from Central Europe and North-East Africa to India and China, differs in having the head and neck creamy yellow, and only the scapulars white. _A. rapax_ (_naevioïdes_), the Tawny Eagle of most of Africa, rarely found in Europe, is remarkable for the parti-coloured feathers of purplish-brown and rufous on the upper parts; otherwise it is brown, slightly streaked with fulvous below. The smaller _A. vindhiana_ and _A. fulvescens_ of India are very like it, while _A. verreauxi_ of Abyssinia and South Africa is jet black with white rump and lower back. _Uroaëtus audax_ of Australia and Tasmania is black, and has a wedge-shaped tail, the bright chestnut nape being streaked with black, and the head with white.

Of the Sea Eagles, characterized by very large bills and nearly bare metatarsi, the biggest is the fish-eating _Thalassaëtus pelagicus_, brown in colour, with white cuneate tail, rump, thighs, and patch on the wing-coverts. It inhabits the coasts, lakes, and rivers of North East Asia, the Liu-Kiu Islands and Japan, rarely wandering to America. _T. branickii_ of Corea is slaty-black, with only the tail and its coverts white. _Haliaëtus albicilla_, the Erne or Sea-Eagle, of which a few pairs remain in Shetland and the west of Scotland and Ireland, used to breed at least as far south in England as the Isle of Man and the Lake District, while in winter immature or even adult specimens still frequently occur in various parts. Generally distributed over the Old World from Greenland to Kamtschatka, it breeds also in the Danube valley, Turkey, Greece, and Egypt, migrating to the Canary Islands, North Africa, Japan, China, and occasionally the Commander Islands. It is brown with white tail, the full plumage not being attained for nearly six years; but very old examples become whitish on the head and neck. In most of its habits it resembles the Golden Eagle, though the note is shriller, and the food consists largely of fish, seized in the talons as it swoops down; it is said to be very destructive to lambs, and, as it eats carrion, it is readily poisoned. In Britain the eyries are now in precipitous sea-cliffs, but of old inland rocks and trees were utilized, as is the case abroad, while {164}in Egypt nests have been found upon the ground in marshes; the two or three white eggs, laid early in the year, are rarely marked with rufous. The representative American species _H. leucocephalus_, the Bald Eagle, has the head, neck, rump, and tail white, and ranges from the North to California and Mexico. _H. leucocoryphus_, with the middle of the tail and the cheeks white, extends from South-East Europe to East Siberia, China, and Burma; _H. leucogaster_, a greyer bird with white head, neck, under parts, and end of the tail, occurs from India and China to Australia and the Friendly Islands; _H. vocifer_ with white head, neck, breast, and tail, but chestnut belly, occupies the Ethiopian Region; _H. vociferoïdes_ of Madagascar is intermediate between the last-named and _H. leucocoryphus_. The river-haunting _Polioaëtus ichthyaëtus_, of the Indian Region and Celebes, is brown, with grey head and neck, white abdomen and tail, the latter broadly tipped with brown; _P. plumbeus_, of similar range, lacks the white base of the tail. The huge nest is placed in a tree and is often lined with green leaves, the two or three eggs being white; the note is loud and plaintive, and the food consists chiefly of fish.

Sub-fam. 5. _Buteoninae_, or Buzzards and Kites.–In this group the Rough-legged Buzzards (_Archibuteo_) are separated from the genus _Buteo_ on account of their feathered metatarsi. _A. lagopus_, well-known in Britain from the numbers which frequently appear in autumn, is alleged to have bred once in Yorkshire, while in Northern Europe it is common, extending thence to about the Lena in Asia, and migrating in winter to South Europe, Turkestan, and even Natal. At the same season a darker sub-species _A. sancti johannis_, which breeds north of the United States, occurs southwards to Mexico. The former bird is cream-coloured, with brown markings of various depth, becoming more streaky below; the tail shews a white base and three or four dark cross-bars, of which the sub-terminal is very broad. In Scandinavia, when there is a plague of lemmings, it is as valuable an ally as the owls; the habits being identical with those of _Buteo_. _A. ferrugineus_ of western North America has the upper surface and thighs ferruginous with brown streaks, the head, neck, and tail whiter, and the under parts nearly pure white. _A. hemiptilopus_ (_strophiatus_) of Nepal and Tibet is nearly uniform brown with a white pectoral band.

_Buteo_ is a genus of some thirty species, which together inhabit nearly the whole globe, except the Australian region; the {165}only form thence recorded seeming to be _B. solitarius_ of the Sandwich Archipelago–the _Pandion solitarius_ of Cassin and so-called _Onychotes gruberi_ of Mr. Ridgway. All may be represented both in appearance and manners by _B. vulgaris_, the Common Buzzard, which breeds not uncommonly in a few wild districts of Britain, chiefly towards the west, and is found on migration in other parts. Abroad the range includes the Atlantic Islands, West and Central Europe, whence it strays at times to Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, and North Africa; the resident bird of those countries, however, is _B. desertorum_. The colour above is brown, with slight white marks and twelve dusky bars on the tail, the lower surface being yellowish-white with brown streaks; but varieties are very frequent in the genus, and these may be either darker or exhibit creamy tints, a trimorphic tendency of which the Sandwich Islands form is a notable instance. The English name Puttock and the Welsh Cetn appear to be applied indiscriminately to the Common Buzzard and the Kite. The flight is powerful, though slow and heavy, nor is it uncommon to see individuals circling in the air or poising themselves aloft on motionless wings; when quartering the ground the movements are not unlike those of Harriers, but the style is more steady, and the operations less protracted. Much of the food consists of small mammals, and especially rodents; it includes, however, small birds, reptiles, frogs, beetles, and grasshoppers; and many gamekeepers now recognise the bird's utility by protecting its breeding-quarters. Its congener _B. jakal_ is even more useful, and destroys large or venomous snakes. Furthermore, the custom of darting upon the prey from some post of vantage remains to be noticed. The nest, commonly situated in trees, is equally often in rocks; those selected not being necessarily lofty, but frequently mere outcrops on the sides of hill-valleys, in which case access is easy even without a rope. The materials used are much the same as in the case of the Golden Eagle, but finer; a like fancy being shewn for green foliage, though ivy and so forth take the place of pine-shoots, as being more readily obtainable. The eggs are white or greenish, commonly blotched or spotted to a greater or less extent with dark brown, red, or lilac; the hen sits very closely, the cock meanwhile soaring above the intruder's head, and uttering his characteristic cat-like mew. _B. desertorum_, of all Africa, South-East Europe, and the countries to India inclusive, which has been {166}recorded three times in England, is smaller and more decidedly rufous than _B. vulgaris_, though hardly distinguishable when immature; while the bigger _B. ferox_ of similar range, though apparently limited in Africa to the North, is closely allied; as are _B. plumipes_, extending from India to Japan (of which _B. leucocephalus_ is a large and probably distinct form) and _B. swainsoni_ of North America, which migrates as far south as Patagonia, and has almost uniform upper parts and chest. _B. borealis_, the "Red-tailed Hawk," occupying with its various races the whole of North America, has a rufous tail with lighter tip and usually a single blackish band, the breast being sooty-black or white, with or without a reddish tinge; _B. albicaudatus_, reaching from Texas to Brazil, is slaty-grey, with rusty markings on the mantle, white under parts and tail, the latter showing grey bars and a wide subterminal black cross-belt; while _B. abbreviatus_, found from the southern United States to northern South America, is almost black, with three broad grey and white zones across the rectrices. _B. augur_ and _B. auguralis_, both from North-East and West Africa, with _B. jakal_ of South Africa, have the upper parts black, some grey on the wings, and the tail chestnut except near the end. The first has a black throat with white streaks and white lower surface, the second a red-brown chest and black spots on the belly, the third is black below with a whitish pectoral patch. Finally, omitting several American species from want of space, _B. brachypterus_–a miniature Common Buzzard–is peculiar to Madagascar, _B. galapagensis_ to the Galapagos, _B. exsul_ to Masafuera, _B. poliosomus_ to Chili, Patagonia, and the Falklands.

_Parabuteo unicinctus_, ranging from the southern United States to Chili and Argentina, a sluggish carrion eater, is sooty-brown with rufous on the wing-coverts and thighs, and a white base and tip to the tail. _Buteola brachyura_ and _B. leucorrhoa_ of tropical America, separated from _Buteo_ by a central tubercle in the nostril, are black above; the former being white below and having four dark bars on the ashy tail, the latter only shewing white at the base of the black rectrices, which are crossed by one grey bar.

_Asturina_, placed near _Astur_ by some authors, includes two species with Buzzard-like habits, that build slight nests and lay greenish-white eggs. _A. plagiata_, found from the South-West United States to Panama, is grey, barred with black on the primaries and with white below, while a white median band {167}crosses the rectrices, of which the coverts are black and white. _A. nitida_, reaching from Panama to south-east Brazil, differs in having white bars above. _Rupornis magnirostris_ of Colombia, Guiana, and Amazonia–hardly separable from _Asturina_–has three black belts on the tail and is rufous instead of grey beneath; _R. ruficauda_ of Central America, _R. pucherani_ of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina, and its Bolivian race _R. saturata_, have the chestnut remiges and rufous rectrices crossed with blackish, and the under surface as in the first-named, but the second is browner and shows a creamy patch on the primaries; _R. nattereri_, of Peru and Brazil, combines the chestnut primaries with an ashy and black tail; _R. ridgwayi_, of Haiti, is chiefly rufous and brown above, and slate-coloured with white bands below. _R. pucherani_ is very noisy and eats fish.

_Butastur teesa_ (with its sub-species _indicus_) ranges from Japan and China to New Guinea and India; it is reddish-brown, varied with white on the nape and rump, the tail and lower parts being rufous, with black and white bars respectively. _B. liventer_, found from Burma to Celebes, is ashy below; _B. rufipennis_ of North-East Africa, has streaks in place of bars. The pugnacious Indian form has a mewing cry, feeds upon small mammals, lizards, frogs, and crabs, and builds its nest almost entirely of twigs, laying some three bluish-white eggs. _Geranoaëtus melanoleucus_ of western and southern South America, the so-called Chilian "Sea-Eagle," is black with grey wings and white belly, both barred with dusky; the flight is vulturine with spiral gyrations, the note is piercing; the food consists of carrion from the beach, small mammals, birds, and grasshoppers. The nest, placed in a tree or crag, is composed of sticks and grass, the two white eggs being blotched with pale red. It is often seen inland.

_Leucopternis_ is a genus of eleven members, of which _L. ghiesbreghti_, of Central America, is snowy-white, with most of the wings and a zone on the tail black. The other forms, whereof three inhabit Brazil, are black or slate-coloured above with white markings, the lower surface being grey in _L. plumbea_ of Ecuador and Panama and _L. schistacea_ of Colombia and Amazonia, but barred with black and white in _L. princeps_, of Costa Rica. _Urubitinga zonura_, a black bird with white tip and base to the tail, ranges from Mexico to Chili and Argentina; {168}_U. anthracina_, found from Arizona and Texas to northern South America, has in addition a white belt across the rectrices.

The crested _Harpyhaliaëtus coronatus_, extending from Bolivia and Brazil to Patagonia, a powerful and savage bird with a taste for carrion, is chocolate-brown, with grey on the wing, and a tail like that of the last species; _H. solitarius_, darker in colour and doubtfully distinct, reaching Mexico northwards. _Heterospizias meridionalis_, of northern South America to Bolivia and Paraguay, is mottled with rufous, grey, and black, and has two white bands on the tail. _Buteogallus aequinoctialis_, of Guiana and Colombia, is black relieved with rusty above, and reddish with black bars below, the remiges being chiefly chestnut, and the tail indistinctly barred with white. _Busarellus nigricollis_, of Guiana and Brazil, is brighter chestnut with black streaks, the head being buffish, the lower throat, primaries, and most of the tail black. It has a harsh cry, and loves sitting on stumps near water, while the rugose soles of the feet assist it to secure the fishes and molluscs on which it–as well as _Buteogallus_–feeds.

Of the forms with comparatively weaker feet, _Haliastur indus_, the "Brahminy Kite" or "Pondicherry Eagle," reaching from the Indian Region to Australia and New Guinea, is chestnut with darker wings, the white head, neck, and lower parts being streaked with black; _H. sphenurus_, of the two latter countries and New Caledonia, named by colonists the "Whistling Kite," is ashy-brown, with rufous head and ochraceous breast striped with brown. The note is shrill, the flight easy and buoyant, the food composed of garbage, small mammals, birds, lizards, frogs, crustaceans, insects and their larvae; while fish are secured by grasping them with one foot during gliding movements along the surface of the water. The Australian species attacks poultry, but is of great utility in devouring caterpillars during insect-plagues. The nest of twigs, lined with grass, roots, hair, or green leaves, is adorned with rags and the like, the two or three eggs being greenish-white, rarely with rusty markings.

_Milvus ictinus_, the Red Kite or Fork-tailed Glead of the Old World, ranging from the Atlantic Islands–except, perhaps, the Azores–through most of Europe to Palestine, Asia Minor, and Northern Africa, but leaving the northerly districts in autumn, is red-brown above and rusty-red beneath, the lower surface and the whitish head being streaked with dark brown.

{169}[Illustration: FIG. 41.–Red Kite. _Milvus ictinus._ × ⅛. (From _Bird Life in Sweden_.)]

It is still known to breed in certain parts of Northern and Western Britain, though no longer the ubiquitous scavenger of the streets, so common even in London three or four centuries ago. Bold thefts of poultry from farmyards and linen from drying-grounds then counterbalanced its utility, but none the less may we regret the almost total extermination of this fine tenant of the air, caused by the increase of fire-arms and the discovery that its tail-feathers make the choicest salmon-flies. Not unlike a Buzzard when aloft, the shrill whistling note, when heard, constitutes a clear mark of distinction; while the broad wings and long deeply-forked tail bestow such graceful ease of motion and perfect steerage power as few birds can claim, whether for soaring and circling aloft, quartering the ground for booty, or hovering over the water to fish. It is not always, however, that the forked character of the tail is apparent, for when fully open it looks square, just as a square tail seems rounded. This species {170}is somewhat gregarious and sluggish, and feeds on offal, small mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians, insects and their larvae. The nest is a mass of sticks, rags, paper, and rubbish generally, placed in a tree or rarely in a rock; the three, or exceptionally four, eggs being like those of the Buzzard, but duller and with more lilac tints. _Milvus migrans_, the Black Kite, once recorded in England, extends throughout Central and Southern Europe, and probably to China, breeding in North-Western and migrating to Southern Africa. The upper parts are dark brown, the under parts rufous, and the head whitish, the two latter being streaked with dusky; the bill is black and the tail moderately forked. Barely separable from this bird are _Milvus aegyptius_ of Africa, Madagascar, South-East Europe, and West Asia, with yellow bill; _M. affinis_, of Papuasia and Australia, possibly reaching Ceylon; _M. melanotis_, extending from India to Lake Baikal, China, and Japan; and the smaller _M. govinda_ of somewhat similar range. The third and fourth have a white patch beneath the primaries. The last-named, or Pariah Kite, is the scavenger of Hindostan, and is even bolder than its congeners; the habits, however, are similar, as are those of the Australian _Lophoictinia isura_, separated from _Milvus_ on account of its square tail. This species has a fine crest, and differs, moreover, in its browner crown and greyer rectrices with whitish coverts.

_Gypoictinia melanosternon_ of Australia has a black head and lower surface, chestnut occiput, nape, and thighs, and brownish- or rufous-black upper parts, the wings and rounded tail being marked with greyish white. Like a Kite in manners, it eats snakes and lizards, and is said to destroy Bustard's and Emeu's eggs.[139] _Elanoïdes furcatus_, the lovely Swallow-tailed Kite, caught once in England, and ranging from the Middle United States to Brazil, is black, with purple and green reflexions, white head, neck, rump, inner secondaries and under parts, bluish bill and feet. With splendid powers of wing, it may be seen gliding rapidly through the air, skilfully quartering the ground, or circling aloft with its long forked tail outspread, to perform doublings and evolutions of every description. It catches bees or other insects in one claw and eats them as it flies, or snatches up a lizard, snake, or frog, to be devoured at leisure, small birds and grubs varying the diet. Flocks are often seen, which {171}hang round a wounded individual like Terns. In the nest and eggs this species and the last resemble their kin, though using no rubbish in building. _Nauclerus riocouri_, of inter-tropical Africa, a miniature _Elanoïdes_, is grey, with white face and lower surface.

_Gampsonyx swainsoni_, of Trinidad, Guiana, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil, is grey, with yellow face, white collar, under parts and tips to the secondaries; a black patch relieving each side of the breast and one of red the upper back. The tail is rounded in this and the succeeding genus. _Elanus caeruleus_, the Black-winged Kite, straying to South-West Europe, but properly ranging from the South-East to India, Ceylon, and all Africa, is ashy-grey above with a black patch on the wing-coverts; the face, lateral rectrices, and all the lower plumage being white, and the irides red. A sub-species, _E. hypoleucus_, occupies Borneo, Java, the Philippines, and Celebes. _E. scriptus_ of Australia, _E. axillaris_, extending thence to Java, and the hardly separable _E. leucurus_ of tropical and sub-tropical America, are marked with black on the under wing-coverts, while the first has black axillaries also. These buoyant birds are fond of perching, but soar with ease, quartering the plains like Harriers, or hovering with uplifted wings to dart down upon their prey of insects, snakes, small mammals, and more rarely birds. The cry is mournful; the small nest, of sticks, grass, and moss, is placed in trees; the three, four, or even eight white eggs being heavily blotched with red. _Ictinia mississippiensis_, the Mississippi Kite, found from the Southern United States to Guatemala, and represented from Mexico to Paraguay by the black-winged _I. plumbea_, is lead-coloured, with black notched tail and rufous inner webs to the primaries; its manners correspond to those of _Elanoïdes_, but the eggs are white.

That most abnormal form _Rostrhamus sociabilis_, the Awl-billed or Everglade Kite, ranging from Florida and Cuba to Bolivia and Argentina, is slaty-black, with white base and tip to the brownish emarginate tail, orange cere and feet, and crimson irides. The extraordinarily slender bill with long terminal hook no doubt assists greatly in extracting from their shells the molluscs, such as _Ampullaria_, on which this species entirely subsists, while its long legs and sharp talons help to secure the prey in the muddy swamps it frequents. Mr. Gibson[140] tells us that it is to some extent gregarious, and is often seen slowly beating over the {172}marshes, or poised aloft with its broad expanded tail alone in motion, a "creaking" or "neighing" alarm-note being apparently the only cry. Twenty or thirty nests are commonly built close together, and are slight platforms of twigs or plant-stems, with a lining of aquatic herbage, supported on the reeds or bushes a few feet above the water. The two or three eggs are whitish with reddish- or yellowish-brown and grey blotches. The breeding-quarters are constantly changed.

_Machaerorhamphus alcinus_, of Tenasserim, Malacca, Borneo, Sumatra, and New Guinea, is especially remarkable for the wide gape of the short bill, which recalls that of the Caprimulgidae. All the tail-coverts are unusually elongated, a fine crest of pointed feathers adorns the occiput, and the plumage is black with a chocolate tinge, the throat and middle of the chest being white, with a broad black streak down the former. _M. anderssoni_, of Damara-Land, the Cameroons, and Madagascar, known to have crepuscular tendencies and to feed partly on bats, is smaller, and has a white abdomen; _M. revoili_, of Somali-Land, is intermediate.

_Pernis apivorus_, the Honey-Buzzard, which still breeds occasionally in Britain in June, when the dense foliage easily causes it to be overlooked, inhabits Europe generally, and probably extends to Japan, migrating in winter to Madagascar and South Africa. The extremely complex phases of plumage make it uncertain whether it shares the Indian Region with the similar but crested _P. ptilorhynchus_ (_cristatus_), from which _P. tweeddalii_, of Sumatra, is doubtfully separable. The upper parts are brown, with greyish head and three or four dark bands on the tail, the lower white with brown spots and bars. White mottlings usually shew above, and the female has the crown brown. The shortly-feathered lores distinguish _Pernis_ from _Buteo_. Our woodland species feeds upon the ground, and devours bees, wasps, and grubs–though not honey–from the comb, together with small mammals, birds, slugs, and worms; the cry is shrill, but seldom heard; the nest, composed of sticks lined with leaves, contains two or three whitish eggs with rich purplish-red or brown markings. _P. celebensis_ differs in the rufous chest, which exhibits black streaks, that are continued to the white throat with its black longitudinal band; the adult closely resembles _Limnaëtus lanceolatus_, both being peculiar to Celebes. _Henicopernis longicaudatus_, of Papuasia, is brown barred with black above, and white streaked with blackish below, {173}the tail shewing five black bands; _H. infuscatus_, of New Britain, is a darker race. _Regerhinus uncinatus_, and the larger _R. megarhynchus_, found from Central America to Bolivia and Brazil, are dusky slate-coloured with a white tail-bar; _R. wilsoni_, of Cuba, has a yellow bill; _R._ (_Leptodon_) _cayennensis_ is glossy black, with grey head, wing and tail-bands, and white lower surface. Immature birds are brown, with rufous and white streaks or bars below.

Sub-fam. 6. _Falconinae._–The true Falcons are remarkable for a notched maxilla, while _Harpagus_ and the crested _Baza_, aberrant members of the group, and sometimes classed with the Kites, exhibit two "teeth." _B. lophotes_, of India, Ceylon, and the Malay countries, is greenish-black above, varied with white and chestnut on the wings; the fore-neck being white, and the breast shewing a band of black above one of chestnut, which is barred with buff towards the black vent. _B. verreauxi_, occurring from the Zambesi to Natal, is dark brownish-grey, with four black bars on the white-tipped tail, and rufous bands across the white breast and under wing-coverts; _B. cuculoïdes_, of West Africa, having the latter plain rufous. The somewhat similar _B. subcristata_ occupies North-East Australia, _B. rufa_ inhabits the Moluccas and Papuasia, _B. timorlaensis_ Timor-laut, _B. erythrothorax_ Celebes and the Sula Islands, _B. magnirostris_ the Philippines, _B. borneensis_ Borneo, _B. leucopais_ Paláwan, _B. sumatrensis_ Sumatra, Tenasserim, and Sikkim, _B. ceylonensis_ Ceylon and South-East India, _B. madagascariensis_ Madagascar, and _B. reinwardti_, with grey-barred breast, the Moluccas, Timor, and Papuasia. Comparatively little is known of the habits of these shy forest forms, which occasionally soar, feed upon the ground on chamaeleons, grasshoppers and other insects, build small nests, and lay about three whitish eggs with brown markings. _Harpagus diodon_, of British Guiana and Brazil, is grey, with brown wings and tail barred with whitish, white throat with a black streak, rufous thighs and under wing-coverts. _H. bidentatus_, extending from Panama to Brazil and Peru, has chestnut under parts, _H. fasciatus_ being hardly separable.

Of the tiny eastern "Finch-falcons," _Microhierax fringillarius_, inhabiting the Malay Peninsula and Great Sunda Islands, is bluish-black, with rufous throat and abdomen, the breast, forehead, a stripe down each side of the neck, and partial bars on the wings and tail being white. It is a bold dashing species, which feeds upon insects and birds–even as large as quails, and lays four white eggs in holes {174}in trees upon a bed of chips, leaves, and insect-débris. _M. latifrons_, of Borneo and the Nicobars, has a much wider frontal band; _M. melanoleucus_ of Assam and Cachar, _M. erythrogenys_ of the Philippines, and _M. sinensis_ of China are quite white below; but the second has black thighs and the third a white nape, a character shared by _M. eutolmus_, ranging from India to Cambodia, wherein the throat and abdomen are chestnut. _Poliohierax semitorquatus_, little bigger than the foregoing, inhabits North-East and South Africa, the male being blue-grey with white forehead, cheeks, nape, rump, under parts and markings on the remiges and rectrices; _P. insignis_ of Borneo and Siam is larger, with black shaft-stripes, but no white collar. The females have the mantle, and in the last-named the crown, chestnut. The African species rarely soars, but haunts low trees and bushes, occasionally flocking, and feeding on mice, small birds, lizards, and coleopterous insects. _Spiziapteryx circumcinctus_, of Chili and Argentina, is brown above and whitish below, with numerous dark streaks; the white eyebrows meet at the nape, and white spots and bands mark the remiges and lateral rectrices.

_Dissodectes ardesiacus_, of Arabia, North-East and West Africa, is slate-coloured with dark shaft-stripes, the wing-quills being brown and the tail interruptedly barred with whitish. _D. dickinsoni_ of Benguela, the Shiré and Rovuma valleys, is brown with pale head and white rump; _D. zoniventris_ of Madagascar has dark bands on the mantle and on the white under parts. _Hieracidea_ (_Harpa_) _novae zealandiae_, the Quail Hawk of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, is dark brown with rufous and grey barring above; the crown and nape being blacker, the tail shewing eight whitish bands, and the creamy-white lower surface and fulvous thigh-region exhibiting streaks of brown. It may be seen soaring over the plains and lower hills, hovering with expanded tail, or pouncing like an arrow on the rodents, birds, and lizards which form its food. Insects too are captured on the wing, and poultry fiercely attacked. The cry is screaming; the eggs resemble those of the Peregrine Falcon, and are deposited in hollows scraped on rocky ledges, or occasionally in rough nests among thick creepers. A smaller and bolder race has been termed _H. ferox_ or _brunnea_, the Bush-Hawk. _H. berigora_ of Australia and New Guinea has brown upper parts, with rufous markings that become bands on the white-tipped tail, creamy under parts streaked with {175}brown, and chestnut thighs. _H. orientalis_ of the same countries lacks the red tints, _H. novae guineae_ of New Guinea is less spotted. These three Kestrel-like birds love swampy districts, and devour small mammals, birds, frogs, lizards, newts, insects, and even carrion; being valuable allies in caterpillar-plagues, but farmyard pests at ordinary times. The nest of sticks, lined with bark or leaves, is placed in trees, the three or four whitish eggs are blotched with reddish-brown.

The nearly cosmopolitan genus _Tinnunculus_ (Kestrel), so called from its querulous "bell-like" note, is separated from _Falco_ rather by pattern of colour than structural considerations. _T. alaudarius_, the most plentiful of the British Falconidae–which is occasionally seen in winter near its breeding-quarters, though chiefly a summer immigrant–ranges from the Atlantic Islands and lat. 68° N. in Europe, through Asia to Japan and China, reaching Fantee and Mombasa in Africa, and having been once recorded from Massachusetts in America. The sub-species _neglectus_, _japonicus_, and _saturatus_ are darker than the type; wherein the male is chiefly bluish-grey above, and buff with black spots and streaks below; the chestnut back being spotted with black, and the white-tipped tail having a broad subterminal black band. The female has rufous upper parts, with dark bars continued down the tail. The Kestrel or Wind-hover is a shy arboreal bird of somewhat crepuscular tendencies, generally observed circling gracefully aloft in readiness to drop upon its prey, or "hovering" with rapid vibrations of the long wings, the tail expanded and the head to windward. Small mammals and coleoptera furnish most of the food, a few birds–very seldom game–lizards, frogs, worms, grasshoppers, and insect-larvae varying the diet. Its great utility is now generally recognised, while sensible keepers should be fast learning that all Hawks and Owls are not vermin. It rarely builds its own nest, but occupies deserted habitations of Crows, Pies, and other birds, relined sparingly with twigs and grass, or scrapes a cup in the soil of some ledge or cavity of a cliff. At times hollow trees, ruins, and chalk-pits are chosen, or even level ground in the fens–pellets of bones, feathers, fur, and beetles' elytra commonly marking the spot. The four to six eggs are creamy-white, blotched or thickly mottled with bright or dull red. _T. cenchris_, the Lesser Kestrel, with white claws, and unspotted back in the male, has four or five times {176}wandered to England, and ranges from the Pyrenees, Styria, and the Orenburg district to Bokhara and North Africa. It sometimes occurs further north, and in winter reaches Cape Colony; the Indian and Chinese race, distinguished as _T. pekinensis_, having strayed to the Transvaal. _T. sparverius_, the "Sparrow-Hawk" of America from the Great Slave Lake to Colombia, which occasionally feeds on snakes, and breeds in Woodpeckers' holes, has two sub-species, _T. cinnamominus_ of Central and South America and _T. caribbaearum_ of the Antilles. _T. dominicensis_ (_sparverioïdes_) inhabits Cuba and St. Domingo, and occurs in Florida; _T. isabellinus_ ranges from Georgia to northern South America; _T. alopex_ from Nubia to Bogos-Land; _T. rupicolus_ and the more northern _T. rupicoloïdes_ occupy South Africa; _T. gracilis_ the Seychelles; _T. punctatus_ Mauritius; _T. newtoni_ Madagascar; _T. moluccensis_ the Moluccas and the Sunda Islands; _T. cenchroïdes_ Australia and Tasmania. It is remarkable that no Kestrel inhabits Jamaica or Bourbon, though Cuba and Mauritius are respectively so near them.

_Erythropus vespertinus_, the Red-footed Falcon, which wanders to Britain, but breeds from Eastern Europe and Algeria to Krasnoiarsk, where it meets the Eastern Asiatic _E. amurensis_, is lead-grey in the male, with browner tail, chestnut thighs and vent region; the female being barred with blackish above, and having the head, nape, and under surface rufous. The cere, orbits, and feet are red. Both forms migrate to South Africa, keeping more to the west and east respectively; the latter, which crosses India and Burma, being distinguished in the male by white under wing-coverts, and in the female by the absence of rufous on the head, neck, and brown-spotted breast. In general habits like Kestrels, these birds are more gregarious, and breed in company.

_Hypotriorchis subbuteo_, the Hobby, nests sporadically in England, and extends thence to North Africa and Japan, occurring in the Canaries and migrating to South Africa, North India, and China. Both sexes are slate-coloured, having buff lower parts with black streaks, reddish vent, white throat and sides of the neck, and a black stripe down the latter. This bold and dashing little Falcon, easily recognisable by the extremely long wings, which give it a Swift-like appearance, is usually seen poised aloft, or rapidly pursuing the insects and birds which form its food. The note is shrill; the three to five eggs resemble closely freckled pinkish specimens of those of the Kestrel, and are {177}deposited late in the season in disused birds' nests. The statement that it broods on the eggs of the Kestrel needs further proof. _H. eleonorae_, the largest Old World species of the genus, occupying the Mediterranean basin from Spain and the Atlas to the Levant, while straying to Mauritius, is uniform sooty-black; but some individuals never become sooty, and immature examples precisely resemble the Hobby. The habits are like those of its congener, but the two or three eggs are larger, and are laid in holes in cliffs, or upon the bare soil on stony flats of desolate islands. The very similar _H. concolor_ ranges from the Red Sea to Madagascar; _H. cuvieri_ inhabits the Ethiopian Region; _H. ophryophanes_ is described from Colonia; _H. severus_ extends from India and Ceylon to New Britain, but not to Australia; _H. lunulatus_ from Flores to the Duke of York Island, with Australia and Tasmania; _H. fusco-caerulescens_ and _H. rufigularis_ from Mexico to Argentina, the former moreover reaching the southern United States and Patagonia. The powerful _H. diroleucus_–perhaps referable to the genus _Falco_–occurs from South Mexico to Peru and Brazil.

_Aesalon regulus_, the Merlin, called the Stone-Falcon from its habit of perching on rocks, is a lively and interesting little species, daring yet confiding, which preys chiefly upon small birds, and flies less swiftly than the Hobby, though both are used for Lark-hawking. The shrill note is chiefly heard at the breeding-quarters, which in Britain are generally on steep hill-slopes, especially where stony outcrops break the heather or grass; from four to six eggs–duller and less blotched than those of the Kestrel, being deposited in a hole scraped in the bare ground. Abroad–and exceptionally in Scotland–old nests in trees or rocky ledges are utilized, and the bird is perhaps occasionally its own architect. Fairly common north of Derbyshire its summer range extends over the moorlands from Shetland to Devonshire, and includes Ireland, while it visits the sea-coast in autumn. It occurs accidentally in Greenland, and reaches thence to the Pyrenees and the Alps, being found across Northern and Central Europe and Asia, and migrating to North Africa, North India, and South China. The male is slaty-blue with rusty nape and under surface, and is streaked with dusky throughout; the throat is white, as is the tip of the tail, which, besides six imperfect bars, shows a broad sub-terminal black band. The dark brown female has the lower parts white, the rectrices exhibiting eight light {178}bars. In the very similar _Ae. columbarius_, the "Pigeon Hawk" of North America, extending to Venezuela and Ecuador, the tail-bars in the respective sexes are four and six. This species and the following usually build in trees, using twigs, roots, grass, and moss for their nests. _Ae._ (_Chicquera_) _typus_, the Indian "Turumti," is a larger bird, both male and female being grey above and white below, with red head and dark barring nearly throughout, while Ethiopian _Ae._ (_C._) _ruficollis_ is slightly less striped.

The most typical member of the Family is _Falco peregrinus_, the almost cosmopolitan Peregrine Falcon, of which the sub-species _F. melanogenys_ and _F. ernesti_, the commonest forms from the Sunda Islands to China and Fiji, are more closely barred below, though not so broadly as _F. cassini_ of the extreme south of America. The colour is slaty-grey above with darker transverse markings, the head and a stripe down each side of the neck being blackish, and the under parts ruddy-white banded with black. Young birds are browner, and are streaked instead of barred. Barely separable is the smaller and darker _F. minor_ of South Africa, the Comoro Islands, and Madagascar, with its larger race _F. punicus_, found from Morocco along both sides of the Mediterranean to Asia Minor. _F. barbarus_, also of the Mediterranean region, but chiefly confined to Africa north of the Niger, and the Soudan, is distinguished by its red nape, brightest in the larger sub-species, _F. babylonicus_, which occurs from Babylonia to North India. The Peregrine Falcon, often erroneously called Goshawk in Scotland–a fact accounting for many British records of the latter–is for its size the most powerful of the Family; and, being one of the "noble" or long-winged forms, is much used in Falconry, wherein the male is termed "Tiercel" and the female "Falcon," as in many other species; while Hunting Hawk, "Blue Hawk," and, for the young, "Red Hawk," are names common to both sexes.

Far the most daring of our Birds of prey, the fierceness and courage are especially shewn in defence of its nestlings, both parents dashing angrily at an intruder, and, though rarely touching him, swooping down in unpleasant proximity, as he clambers along some narrow ledge or swings upon his rope. Should, however, the hen-bird, which sits very closely, have fresh eggs, she disappears on leaving them, though her consort flies wildly to and fro at some little distance, reiterating his shrill cry. Exceptionally {179}savage adults may even strike the person; nevertheless, Skuas and certain Owls are decidedly more dangerous, whereas the ordinary Eagle is mild in comparison. The food consists of ducks, guillemots, pigeons, grouse, and partridges, varied by rabbits and so forth; yet, in spite of the undoubted damage caused to game, preservers would be wise to spare a due proportion of individuals in view of their utility in killing off the more weakly and diseased birds. The two to four eggs, usually finely blotched or thickly mottled with rich red on a creamy ground–though one is often paler or yellowish–are deposited in a hollow scraped on some bare or grassy ledge of a sea-girt or inland cliff; but occasionally nests in trees are utilized, or broken ground in northern regions. Two or more sites are often tenanted in turn. Long distances are traversed in search of food, the survivor of a pair mating again marvellously quickly, considering the comparatively scanty supply of partners.

_F. peregrinator_ (_atriceps_), the Shaheen or Royal Falcon, of India, Ceylon, and Tenasserim, distinguishable by the deep ferruginous under surface and the general absence of barring, is much prized by natives for hawking, as is the docile but delicate and less courageous Lanner (_F. feldeggi_ or _tanypterus_) by the Bedouins. The latter is buffish-brown, with ruddy crown and nape, a grey tinge towards the rufous-barred tail, and fawn-coloured lower parts with brown spots; it ranges from Loango and Unyamuesi in Africa as far as South Europe and Persia, and lays four eggs–lighter than those of the Peregrine–in rocks, ruins, or disused birds' nests, the Dashoor Pyramid being a well-known site. _F. biarmicus_, a close ally from South Africa, is nearly spotless below.

Of the genus _Gennaea_ or "Desert Falcon," _G. sacer_ (_lanarius_ or _milvipes_), the Saker, found from North Africa and East Europe to North China, has brown upper parts mottled with fulvous, whitish crown, nape, and lower surface streaked with brown, and white markings across the tail. A swift and fairly bold denizen of open country, it is used for bustard-, gazelle- or heron-hawking by Indians and Arabs, while it also preys on hares, birds, and lizards. It deposits three or four rather pointed white eggs, blotched or spotted with various shades of red, in a nest of sticks and grass, normally placed in a tree. _G. jugger_, the Luggur of India and Afghanistan, differs in being greyer above and less streaked below, with rufous crown and nearly uniform tail, whereas _G. mexicana_ (_polyagrus_), the Prairie {180}Falcon of Mexico and the western United States, has the head brown. _G. hypoleuca_, of Australia, is grey and black, with barred tail, and dusky shaft-streaks on the whitish lower parts; _G. subnigra_ of the same country being almost plain blackish-brown.

Much controversy has arisen concerning the noble Arctic Falcons (_Hierofalco_), especially those occupying Siberia and Northern America; it seems, however, most probable that three grey forms inhabit the latter and two the former region. In _H. candicans_, the Greenland Falcon, the prevailing colour is white at all ages, transversely marked above and spotted below with blackish; it occurs in North Greenland, Spitsbergen, Arctic Siberia and America, the Commander Islands, and Amur-land. _H. gyrfalco_, the Gyr- or Jer-Falcon[141] of Arctic America, Greenland, Scandinavia, Northern Russia, and possibly North Asia, is like a large Peregrine Falcon, but is greyer above and whiter below; _H. islandus_, the Iceland Falcon, of South Greenland, Iceland, North Siberia, and Arctic America is paler, having the whitish head streaked with dusky. _H. labradorus_, of Labrador, is dark throughout. All these species move southwards towards winter, the first three visiting Britain and the Greenland Falcon even Southern France. They are still valued in Falconry; but, though more powerful, they lack the spirit and dash of the Peregrine Falcon. The food consists of lemmings, grouse, sea-fowl, and the like; the nest of sticks, lined with softer materials, is placed on rocks or trees, and contains three or four whitish eggs mottled or completely covered with yellowish or cinnamon markings.

Fam. V. PANDIONIDAE.–This group is especially remarkable for the reversible outer toe–recalling that of the Owls, the want of an aftershaft, and the long closely-feathered tibiae. The strong short beak is arched and decidedly hooked; the powerful feet are roughly scaled; the toes nearly equal, with no connecting membranes, but with spicules beneath; the claws sharp, curved, and rounded; the wings long; the tail comparatively short. The other structural details are as in the Falconidae. The downy young are dusky, varied with rufous; the lower breast, the abdomen, a central stripe down the back, and several on the head, being white.

_Pandion haliaëtus_, the Osprey or Fish-Hawk, nearly cosmopolitan {181}in range, though local everywhere, and absent from many of the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, and America south of Brazil, is dark brown above, with the short crest, head, nape, and lower parts white; the crown being streaked with blackish, and a brown band–which becomes in the male a series of spots–crossing the chest. The bill is dusky, the cere and feet are bluish, and the irides yellow. The smaller Australasian _P. leucocephalus_ and the American _P. carolinensis_ barely attain sub-specific rank. A migrant to Britain, this bird formerly bred at Ulleswater, and not uncommonly in Scotland, where two or three pairs still remain. Of old it often occupied rocky islets or ruins in Highland lochs, but the nest is usually placed in other countries on trees or sea-cliffs, and exceptionally on the ground; trees being the favourite site in America, in which country colonies are sometimes formed, consisting of even three hundred pairs. The bulky flattish pile of sticks and turf, lined with moss, grass, or seaweed, is invariably placed near water, and contains three, or rarely four, whitish eggs, beautifully blotched or overspread with dark brown, crimson, or claret-colour, varied with orange, buff or grey, New World specimens being usually duller. Surface-swimming fish form the food, and magnificent indeed is the spectacle when an Osprey, after poising itself vertically aloft, descends with terrific dash and splashing plunge to rise again with its captured prey grasped in its roughened toes. The graceful flight is varied by many evolutions and spiral ascents, while the loud piercing scream is chiefly heard at the nesting-quarters.

Of fossil Falconine forms, excluding existing species, _Lithornis vulturinus_ is found in the London Clay (Lower Eocene); from the Upper Eocene of France comes _Palaeocercus cuvieri_ and _Falco_–the former possibly from England also; from the Lower Miocene of France _Teracus littoralis_, _Palaeohierax gervaisi_, _Aquila_, _Buteo_, and _Milvus_; from its Middle Miocene _Haliaëtus_ and _Aquila_. _Aquila_ also occurs in the American Pliocene of Nebraska and Oregon; _Falco_ in the Italian; from the drifts of Queensland we have _Necrastur alacer_ and _Taphaëtus branchialis_; from the Argentine Pampean of Lujan and the Post-Pampean of Monte Hermoso respectively _Asthenopterus minutus_ and _Foetopterus ambiguus_; while the superficial deposits and swamps of New Zealand furnish a sub-fossil _Circus_ and the giant _Harpagornis moorii_; and the Mare aux Songes of Mauritius _Astur alphonsi_.

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