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, 251/2, 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.
16. 1. Elanus dispar, Temm. Black-shouldered Elanus.
Plate CCCLII. Male and Female.
Ash-grey above; head, tail, and lower parts white, with a large bluish-black patch on the wing above, and a smaller beneath; feet orange-yellow. Young with the upper parts brownish-grey, the larger feathers tipped with white, the patches on the wings brownish-black.