The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle [vol. 3 of 5] : $b BirdsGould, John
Science
The zoology of the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle [vol. 3 of 5] : $b Birds
Gould, John
Beagle Expedition (1831-1836); Birds; Zoology
COLOUR.—Nearly as in young female, but with the breast dark brown.
_Young female._
COLOUR.—Head, back 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, but 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.
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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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