Form and Size.—Larger and more robust than the male. Total length 24 inches. Tail ten and a half inches long, and therefore longer in proportion to the wings than in the other sex. Wings from joint to end of primaries, 17¼.
Habitat, Galapagos Archipelago, (October).
This bird is, I believe, confined to the Galapagos Archipelago, where on all the islands, it is excessively numerous. It inhabits, indifferently, either the dry sterile region near the coast, which, perhaps, is its most general resort, or the damp and wooded summits of the volcanic hills. This bird, in most of its habits and disposition, resembles the Milvago leucurus, or the Falco Novæ Zelandiæ of older authors. It is extremely tame, and frequents the neighbourhood of any building inhabited by man. When a tortoise is killed even in the midst of the woods, these birds immediately congregate in great numbers, and remain either seated on the ground, or on the branches of the stunted trees, patiently waiting to devour the intestines, and to pick the carapace clean, after the meat has been cut away. These birds will eat all kinds of offal thrown from the houses, and dead fish and marine productions cast up by the sea. They are said to kill young doves, and even chickens; and are very destructive to the little tortoises, as soon as they break through the shell. In these respects this bird shows its alliance with the buzzards. Its flight is neither elegant nor swift. On the ground it is able, like the M. leucurus and Phalcobænus montanus of D’Orbigny, to run very quickly. This habit which, as before observed, is so anomalous in the Falcons, manifests in a very striking manner the relation of this new genus with the Polyborinæ. It is, also, a noisy bird, and utters many different cries, one of which was so very like the shrill gentle scream of the M. chimango, that the officers of the “Beagle” generally called it either by this name, or from its larger size by that of Carrancha,—both names, however, plainly indicating its close and evident relationship with the birds of that family. The craw is feathered; and does not, I believe, protrude like that of the P. Brasiliensis or M. leucurus. It builds in trees, and the female was just beginning to lay in October. The bird of which the full figure has been given, is a young female, but of, at least, one year old. The old male bird is of a uniform dusky plumage, and is seen behind. The adult female resembles the young of the same sex, but the breast is dark brown like that of the male. In precisely the same manner as was remarked in the case of the M. leucurus, these old females are present in singularly few proportional numbers. One day at James’ Island, out of thirty birds, which I counted standing within a hundred yards of the tents, under which we were bivouacked, there was not a single one with the dark brown breast. From this circumstance I am led to conclude that the females of this species (as with the M. leucurus) acquire their full plumage late in life.
1. Buteo erythronotus.
Haliaëtus erythronotus, King, in Zoological Journal, vol. iii. p. 424.
Buteo tricolor, D’Orbigny.
I obtained specimens of this bird from Chiloe and the Falkland Islands, and Captain King who first described it, procured his specimens from Port Famine, Lat. 53° 38′ in Tierra del Fuego. M. D’Orbigny states that it has a wide range over the provinces of La Plata, central Chile, and even Bolivia; but in this latter country, it occurs only on the mountains, at an elevation of about 12,000 feet above the sea. The same author states, that it usually frequents open and dry countries; but as we now see that it is found in the dense and humid forests of Chiloe and Tierra del Fuego, this remark is not applicable. At the Falkland Islands, it preys chiefly on the rabbits, which have run wild and abound over certain parts of the island. This bird was considered by Captain King as a Haliaëtus; but Mr. Gould thinks it is more properly placed with the Buzzards. Captain King gave it the appropriate specific name of erythronotus, and, therefore, as Mr. Gould observes, the more recent one of tricolor, given by M. D’Orbigny, must be passed over.
2. Buteo varius. Gould.
Buteo varius, Gould, Proceedings of the Zoological Society, Part v. 1837, p. 10.
B. vertice corporeque supra intensè fuscis, plumis fulvo marginatis vel guttatis; primariis secundariisque cinereis, lineis numerosis fuscis transversim striatis; caudâ cinerea, lineis angustis numerosis fuscis transversim notatâ; singulis plumis flavescenti-albo ad apicem notatis; gulâ fuliginosâ; pectore fulvo, lineâ interruptâ nigrescente a gulâ tendente circumdato; abdomine imo lateribusque stramineo et rufescenti-fusco variegatis; femoribus crissoque stramineis lineis transversalibus anfractis rufescenti-fuscis ornatis; rostro nigro; cerâ tarsisque olivaceis.