_Falco carolinensis_, GMEL. Syst. Nat. p. 263, 1789.—DAUD. Tr. Orn.
II, 69, 1800. _Pandion carolinensis_, BONAP. List, pt. iii, 1838;
Consp. Av. p. 16.—STRICKL. Orn. Syn. I, 64, 1855.—AUD. Birds Am. pl.
lxxxi, 1831.—CASS. Birds Cal. & Tex. p. 112, 1854.—BREWER, Oölogy,
1857, p. 53, pl. iii, fig. 33, 34.—NEWB. P. R. R. Rept. VI, iv,
75, 1857.—HEERM. VII, 21, 1857.—DE KAY, Zoöl. N. Y. II, 8, pl. vi,
fig. 18.—CASS. Birds N. Am. 1858, p. 44.—COOP. & SUCK. P. R. R.
Rept. XII, ii, 153, 1860.—COUES, Prod. Orn. Ariz. 1866, p. 13.—GRAY,
Hand List, I, 15, 1869.—MAX. Cab. Journ. VI, 1858, 11.—LORD, Pr.
R. A. I. IV, 1864, 110 (Brit. Columb.; nesting).—FOWLER, Am. Nat.
II, 1868, 192 (habits). _Falco cayennensis_, GMEL. Syst. Nat. p.
263, 1789.—DAUD. Tr. Orn. II, p. 69, 1800. _Falco americanus_, GMEL.
Syst. Nat. p. 257.—LATH. Index Orn. p. 13, 1790; Syn. I, 35, 1781;
Gen. Hist. I, 238, 1821.—DAUD. Tr. Orn. II, 50.—SHAW, Zoöl. VII, 88.
_Aquila americana_, VIEILL. Ois. Am. Sept. I, pl. iv, 1807. _Pandion
americanus_, VIEILL. Gal. Ois. pl. ii, 1825.—VIG. Zoöl. Journ. I,
336.—SWAINS. Classif. B. II, 207, 1837. _Aquila piscatrix_, VIEILL.
Ois. Am. Sept. I, pl. iv, 1807. _Accipiter piscatorius_, CATESBY,
Carolina, I, pl. ii, 1754. _A. falco piscator antillarum_, BRISS. Orn.
I, 361, 1760. _A. falco piscator carolinensis_, BRISS. Orn. I, 362.
_Pandion haliætus_, RICH. Faun. Bor. Am. II, 20, 1831.—JARD. (WILS.)
Am. Orn. II, 103, 1832.—JAMES. (WILS.) Am. Orn. I, 38, 1831.—AUD.
Orn. Biog. I, 415, 1831.—GRAY, List B. Brit. Mus. p. 22, 1844. _?
Pandion fasciatus_, BREHM, Allgem. deutsch. Zeitung, II, 1856, 66 (St.
Domingo).
SP. CHAR. _Adult male_ (17.227, San José, Lower California, December
15, 1859; J. Xantus). Upper surface dark vandyke-brown, with a faint
purplish cast; quills black. Every feather with a conspicuous, sharply
defined terminal crescent of pure white. Tail brownish-drab, narrowly
tipped with white, and crossed with seven (one concealed) regular
bands of dusky; inner webs almost wholly white, the black bands
sharply defined and continuous; shafts entirely white. Ground-color
of the head, neck, and entire lower parts, pure white; a broad stripe
from the eye back across upper edge of the ear-coverts to the occiput
brownish-black; white head also sparsely streaked with blackish, these
streaks suffusing and predominating medially; nape faintly tinged with
ochraceous, and sparsely streaked. Breast with large cordate spots of
brown, fainter than that of the back, a medial spot on each feather,
the shaft black; rest of lower parts immaculate. Lining of the wing
white, strongly tinged with ochraceous; the brown of the outer surface
encroaching broadly over the edge. Under primary-coverts with broad
transverse spots or bars; under surface of primaries grayish-white
anterior to the emargination irregularly mottled with grayish; axillars
immaculate. Wing-formula, 2=3, 4–1, 5. Wing, 20.00; tail, 8.80;
culmen, 1.35; tarsus, 2.15–1.10; middle toe, 1.90; outer, 1.75; inner,
1.40; posterior, 1.15; posterior outer and inner claws of equal
length, each measuring 1.20 (chord); middle, 1.15. “Iris yellow; feet
greenish-yellow.”
_Adult female_ (290, S. F. Baird’s Collection, Carlisle, Pa., April
17, 1841). Dark brown of the upper surface entirely uniform, there
being none of the sharply defined white crescents so conspicuous in
the male.[70] Tail brown to its tip, the dusky bands obscure, except
on inner webs. On the top of the head, the dusky is more confined to a
medial stripe. Pectoral spots smaller, less conspicuous. Under surface
of primaries more mottled with grayish. Wing-formula, 3, 2–4–1, 5. Wing,
20.50; tail, 9.15; culmen, 1.35; tarsus, 2.15; middle toe, 1.70.
[Illustration:
=12013=, ♂. ½
=12013=, ♂. ½
=17227=, ♂. ¼
_Pandion carolinensis._]
HAB. Whole of North America, south to Panama; N. Brazil; Trinidad, Cuba,
and other West India Islands.
Localities: Belize (SCL. Ibis, I, 215); Cuba (CAB. Journ. II, lxxx,
nests; GUNDL. Repert. Sept. 1865, 1, 222); Bahamas (BRYANT, Pr. Bost.
Soc. VII, 1859); Panama (LAWR. VIII, 63); Trinidad (TAYLOR, Ibis, 1866,
79); Arizona (COUES, Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 49); N. Brazil (PELZ. Orn. Bras.
I, 4).
In eight out of twelve North American adult specimens, there is but the
slightest amount of spotting on the breast; in two of these (4,366,
Puget Sound, and 12,014, Oregon), none whatever; in 17,228 (♂, Cape St.
Lucas), 2,512 (♂ S. F. B. Carlisle, Pa.), 34,065 (♀, Realejo, Central
America), and 5,837 (Fort Steilacoom), there is just a trace of these
spots.
The specimens described are those having the breast most distinctly
spotted. Specimens vary, in length of wing, from 17.50 to 20.50. There
appears to be no sexual difference in size.
The distinctness or identity of the European and North American Ospreys
can only be determined by the comparison of a very large series; this we
have not been able to do, and although it is our belief that they should
not be separated, the impressions received from a close inspection of
the specimens before us (twenty-seven American and eighteen European)
seem to indicate the propriety of distinguishing them as races.
The male of the pair described appears to be perfectly identical, in all
respects except size, with a very perfect, finely mounted European male;
indeed, the only discrepancy is in the size, the wing of the European
bird being only nineteen inches, instead of twenty inches as in the
American. The female, however, differs from European females in having
the brown on the breast in the form of detached faint spots, instead of
a continuous grayish-brown wash, more or less continuous.
The types of our descriptions are the only specimens of the American
series which show even an approach to the amount of spotting on the
breast constant in birds from Europe.
The American bird, as indicated by the series before us, would seem to
be rather the larger; for the European specimens measure uniformly about
an inch less than the American in length of the wing.
In all the American specimens, of both sexes, the shafts of the
tail-feathers are continuously white, while in the European they are
clear white only at the roots or for the basal half.
While, in consideration of the above facts, I am for the present
compelled to recognize the American _Pandion_ under the distinctive name
of _carolinensis_, I may say, that, if any European birds occur with the
breast immaculate,—no matter what the proportion of specimens,—I shall
at once waive all claims to distinctness for the American bird.