Bill short, with the upper outline nearly straight and declinate to the edge of the cere, then decurved, the sides rapidly sloping, the edges with a slight festoon, the tip trigonal, acute; lower mandible with the dorsal line convex and ascending, the edges arched, at the end deflected, the tip rounded. Head large, roundish, flattened above. Nostrils, obovate, nearer the ridge than the margin. Neck rather short. Body full. Feet short, robust; tarsi roundish, anteriorly feathered half-way down, and scutellate, posteriorly also scutellate; toes of moderate length, scaly for half their length; claws long, arched, compressed, acuminate. Plumage full and rather blended. Space between the bill and eye covered with bristly feathers. Wings long, broad, the fourth quill longest, the first and seventh or eighth about equal; the first four abruptly cut out on the inner web. Tail rather long, broad, slightly rounded. Cere and feet yellow; bill light blue at the base, black at the tip, in all the American species.
5. 1. Buteo Harrisii, Aud. Harris's Buzzard.
Plate CCCXCII. Female.
Bill higher and feet more robust than in the other species. Wings much rounded, the first quill four inches shorter than the fourth, which is longest, the seventh longer than the second. Chocolate-brown; wing-coverts and tibial feathers brownish-red; upper tail-coverts, base and end of tail white.
Female, 24, wing 151/4.
Mississippi. Extremely rare. Migratory.
Louisiana Hawk, Falco Harrisii, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. v. p. 30.
6. 2. Buteo vulgaris, Willoughby. Common Buzzard.
Plate CCCLXXII. Female.
Upper parts chocolate-brown; primaries black toward the end, part of their inner webs white, barred with brownish-black; tail with about ten dusky bars on a reddish-brown ground, the last dark bar broader; eyelids whitish; throat white, longitudinally streaked with dusky; the rest of the lower parts yellowish or brownish-white, barred with brown. This species is subject to much variation in colour.