Plate LXXXI. Adult male.
Bill bluish-black, cere light blue, feet pale greyish-blue tinged
anteriorly with yellow. General colour of upper parts deep
umber-brown, the tail barred with whitish on the inner webs; the upper
part of the head and neck white, the middle part of the crown dark
brown; a broad band of the latter colour from the bill down the side
of the neck; lower parts white, the neck streaked with light brown;
anterior tibial feather tinged with brown. Young with the feathers of
the upper parts broadly tipped with brownish-white, the lower pure
white.
_Male_, 23, 54. _Female_, 25-1/2, 58.
From Texas northward, and throughout the interior, as well as along
the north-west coast. Resident in the south.
Fish Hawk, Falco Haliaetus, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. v. p. 13.
Falco Haliaetus, Bonap. Syn. p. 26.
Fish Hawk or Osprey, Falco Haliaetus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. i. p.
415, v. v. p. 362.
GENUS VI. ELANUS, Sav. ELANUS.
Bill short, small, very wide at the base, much compressed toward the
end; upper mandible with the dorsal line convex and declinate to the
end of the cere, then decurved, the sides slightly convex, the tip
narrow and acute, the edges with a distinct festoon, lower mandible
with the angle very wide and long, the dorsal line very short, and
slightly convex, the tip obliquely truncate, and narrow. Nostrils
elliptical, rather large, about half-way between the cere and ridge.
Head rather large, broad, flattened above; neck short; body compact.
Legs rather short; tarsus very short, stout, roundish, feathered
anteriorly for half its length, the rest covered with small roundish
scales; toes short, thick, scaly, with a few terminal scutella; claws
long, curved, conical, rounded beneath, acute. Plumage very soft, and
rather blended. Wings very long and pointed, the second quill longest.
Tail of moderate breadth, long, emarginate, and rounded.