A Synopsis of the Birds of North AmericaAudubon, John James
Science
A Synopsis of the Birds of North America
Audubon, John James
Birds -- Classification; Birds -- North America
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.
_Male_, 14, 40. _Female_, 16-3/4, 41-1/2.
From Texas to North Carolina. Rare. Never far inland. Migrates
southward.
Black-winged Hawk, Falco melanopterus, Bonap. Amer. Orn. v.
ii.
Falco melanopterus, Bonap. Syn. p. 31. Falco dispar, App. p.
435.
Black-shouldered Hawk, Falco dispar, Aud. Amer. Orn. v. iv. p.
397.
GENUS VII. ICTINIA, Vieillot. ICTINIA.
Bill very short, wide at the base, much compressed toward the end;
upper mandible with the dorsal line decurved in its whole length, the
sides slightly convex, the tip narrow and acute, the edges with an
obtuse lobe; lower mandible with the angle very wide, the dorsal line
ascending and convex, the tip rather broad and obliquely truncate.
Nostrils round, lateral, with a central papilla. Head rather large,
roundish, broad, flattened; neck short, body compact. Legs rather
short; tarsus stout, covered anteriorly with scutella; toes scutellate
above, scabrous beneath, with pointed papillæ; claws rather long,
curved, acuminate, flattened beneath. Plumage rather compact. Wings
very long, the third quill longest. Tail long, emarginate.
This genus is easily distinguished from Elanus; the tarsi and toes
being scutellate in this, and scaly in that; and the festoon on the
upper mandible is much more prominent in Ictinia, while the nostrils,
instead of being elliptical, are round, as in the Falcons.
17. 1. Ictinia plumbea, Gmel. Mississippi Ictinia.--Mississippi Kite.
Plate CXVII. Male and Female.
Head, secondary quills, and lower parts light ash-grey; back and wing
coverts dark leaden-grey; primaries black, margined externally with
deep red; tail bluish-black; scutella dark purplish-red.
_Male_, 14, 36. _Female_, 15.
From Texas, where it is abundant, to North Carolina; up the
Mississippi to Natchez. Migratory.
Mississippi Kite, Falco Mississippiensis, Wils. Amer. Orn. v.
iii. p. 80.
Falco plumbeus, Bonap. Syn. p. 90.
Mississippi Kite, Falco plumbeus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. ii. p.
108, v. v. p. 374.
GENUS VIII. NAUCLERUS, Vig. SWALLOW-TAILED-HAWK.
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