Falco tinnunculus Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 90.
Cerchneis tinnuncula Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874), 1, 425.
Cerchneis tinnunculus Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 276; Oates,
Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 308; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List
(1906), 45.
Luzon (Whitehead); Palawan (White). Europe and northern Asia;
in winter, Africa and the Indian Peninsula.
"Adult male.--Upper parts brick-red, with a few arrow-head markings
of black, larger on the inner secondaries; primary-coverts and
quills dark brown, the former narrowly margined with rufous, the
primaries notched with white for about two-thirds of their length,
the inner primaries and outer secondaries narrowly edged and tipped
with buffy white; head and neck clear blue-gray, with narrow black
shaft-stripes; forehead and narrow eyebrow buffy white; cheeks silvery
gray, inclining to blackish below the eye and on the fore part of
cheeks, forming a tolerably distinct moustache; lower back, rump,
upper tail-coverts, and tail clear blue-gray, the latter tipped with
ashy white, before which is a broad subterminal band of black; throat
and under tail-coverts buff, unspotted; remainder of under surface
rufous-fawn; the chest-feathers mesially streaked with black, these
dark centers being larger and more oval in shape on flank-feathers;
thighs clear rufous unspotted; under wing-coverts white, spotted with
black. Bill bluish horn-color, black at tip, yellowish at base; cere,
orbits, and feet yellow; iris brown. Length, 317; culmen, 44; wing,
234; tail, 170; tarsus, 41.
"Adult female.--Similar to the male underneath but not so deeply
colored. Upper surface entirely rufous, banded with black, with a
faint bluish shade on the rump; upper tail-coverts inclining to buff;
head rufous, streaked with black; tail rufous, banded with black,
the bars not being strictly continuous, tipped with buffy white,
before which is a conspicuous broad band of black; facial features
and soft parts as in the male. Length, 317; culmen, 19; wing, 234;
tail, 165; tarsus, 41.
"Young male.--Resembling the old female but rather paler and more
distinctly striped on the breast. The tail first changes, becoming blue
like that of the old male; and thus birds are often seen in partial
plumage, having the blue tail of the adult male, but retaining the
rufous head of the old female dress." (Sharpe.)
Suborder PANDIONES.
This suborder with a single family of two genera is distinguished
from the suborder Accipitres by having the outer toe reversible;
in addition to this the claws are very greatly curved and the under
side of each claw is rounded instead of being grooved or concave as
in the hawks and eagles.
Family PANDIONIDÆ.
Characters same as those given for the Suborder.
Genera.
a1. Smaller; front of tarsus covered with small imbricated
scales. ... Pandion (p. 245)
a2. Larger; part of tarsus covered with large transverse
plates. ... Polioaëtus (p. 247)
Genus PANDION Savigny, 1809.
Bill slightly compressed; width of upper mandible at nostril more
than its depth; primaries abruptly and deeply cut on inner web and
exceeding secondaries by more than length of tarsus; back of tarsus
covered with small scales like those in front.
Species.
a1. Much larger; wing, about 500 mm. ... haliætus (p. 245)
a2. Much smaller; wing, 460 mm. or less. ... leucocephalus (p. 246)