Tarsi strong, feathered for nearly a third of their length beneath the joint.
Scales in narrow, undivided (with the exception in some instances of one)
bands, covering the front of tarsus. Toes very strong and rather long, like
those of the species of Milvago, and much more so than in the genus Buteo.
Hind-toe equal in length to the inner one ; but not placed quite so high on the
Tarsus as in Polyhorus. Basal joints of middle toe covered with small scales,
with five large ones towards the extremity. Claws very strong, thick and
long, and rather more arched, and broader than in Polyhorus Brasiliensis;
their extremities obtuse, but not in so great a degree as in some species of
3Tilvago.
Inches.
Total length from tip of bill to end of tail following curvature of b o d y ........................................................ 20^
T a i l .............................................................................................................................................................................
Wing, from elbow-joint to extremity of longest p r im a r y ..................................................................................
Bill, from tip to anterior edge of eye measured in a straight l i n e .......................................................................iV
Tarsus, from soles of feet to centre of jo in t
Hind claw from tip to root, measured in straight l i n e ..................................................................................
Claw of middle t o e ...............................................................................................................................................
Old female.
C o l o u r .—Nearly as in young female, but with the breast dark brown.
Young female.
C o l o u r .— Head, hack of neck, back, wing coverts and tertiaries barred and
mottled, both with pale umber brown (of the same tint as in the male bird)
and with pale fulvous orange. On head and back of neck, each feather is of
the latter colour, with a mere patch of the brown on its tip ; but in the longer
feathers, as in the scapulars, upper tail coverts, inner web and part of outer
of the tertiaries, each is distinctly barred with the dark brown. Tail as in the
old male. Primaries black as in male, with the inner webs nearly white, and
marked with short transverse bars. Under surface and thighs of the same
fulvous orange, hut some of the feathers, especially those on the breast,
are marked with small spots of umber brown on their tips. Some of the
longer feathers on the flanks, on the under tail coverts, and on the linings
of the wing, have irregular bars of the same.
F o rm and S i z e .—Larger and more robust than the male. Total length 2 4 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, M \.
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 resor , or the
damp and wooded summits of tlie volcanic hills. This bird m most of its habits
and disposition, resembles the 3Iilvago leucurus, or the Falco Novæ Zelandiæ of o der
authors. It is extremely tame, and frequents the neighbourhood of any building
inhabited by man. When a tortoise is killed even in the midst o f the woods, these
birds immediately congregate in great numbers, and remain either seated on the
ground, or on the branches o f 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 31. 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 Cai-iWia,—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 31. 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 31. 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 31. leucurus) acquire their full plumage late in life.