|
Home - Index Of Bird Articles |
|
|
|
|
The Buzzards, Or Buzzard-hawks (subfamily Buteoninoe) The word Buzzard is derived, through the French busard, from the Latin buteo, and according to Newton should perhaps properly be restricted to the common Buzzard (Buteo Buteo) of western Europe... |
|
Red-tailed Hawk One of the best known North American Buzzards is the Red-tailed Hawk, which, under several well-marked forms, ranges through-out the entire continent. |
|
The European Buzzard (B. Buteo) of western Europe is said to have been occasionally, though of course accidentally, found in the United States. |
|
Rough-legged Buzzards Closely allied to the true Buzzards are the Rough-legged Buzzards (Archibuteo), which differ in having weaker bills and feet and with the tarsus densely feathered in front to the base of the toes. |
|
Sparrow-hawks And Goshawks (subfamily Accipitrinoe) The last of the subfamilies into which the diurnal birds of prey are here divided forms a large group of several genera and numerous species, which enjoy a practically world-wide distribution. |
|
The Sparrow-hawks (Accipiter), although not the birds so called in America, include some forty-two nominal species, and are generally of small size, differing mainly from the Goshawks (Astur)... |
|
The Cooper's Hawk (A. Cooperi) resembles the Sharp-shinned Hawk except in size, being from fourteen to twenty inches long, and by the fact that the end of the tail is rounded rather than straight or slightly notched. |
|
European Sparrow-hawk (A. Nisus), which belongs to the same group as those just described, was once a common bird throughout the British Islands, but on account of its depredations on the game preserves has been greatly depleted in numbers. |
|
The Goshawks (Astur) are very numerous in species, no less than sixty-three having been described, from practically the entire world, North America laying claim to three forms... |
|
The Fowl-like Birds THE Galliformes, or Fowl-like birds, constitute a large, practically cosmopolitan group of fairly well-marked birds, having the palate schizognathous instead of dromaeognathous... |
|
The Madagascar Mesite A very peculiar bird indeed is this so-called Mesite (Mesoenas variegata) of Madagascar, and quite in accord with many of the other anomalous life forms that at one time, or still, inhabit that far-away island. |
|
The Hemipodes, Or Bustard—quails Although not of great importance, it is necessary to mention briefly the curious little Bustard-Quails, or Hemipodes, as they are called from the fact that the first toe is absent, except in one species. |
|
The Game Birds The Game Birds, so called, form a very large and widely distributed group, the members of which are so well known the world over that it is hardly necessary to enter into a lengthy general description. |
|
The Megapodes Although clearly gallinaceous in structure, the Megapodes stand out boldly from all known birds in a number of marked peculiarities. |
|
The Curassows And Guans Among the many birds confined to the New World not any are more eminently characteristic than the Curassows and Guans of Central and South America. |
|
Flat-crested And Helmeted Curassows There is a singular species found in British Guiana and the upper Amazons known as the Flat-crested Curassow (Nothocrax Urumutum), from the fact that the full long crest on the top of the head is recumbent. |
|
Derbian Guan One of the most interesting and at the same time one of the rarest of those in which the bill is broader than high is the so-called Mountain Pheasant, or Derbian Guan (Oreophasis derbianus)... |
|
The Guans, Or Chachalacas (Ortalis), constitute the larger genus among the Curassows, numbering twenty or more species and subspecies. |
|
The True Game Birds The characters and limitations of this group have already been set forth, the first of the four subfamilies into which it is divided comprising the Turkeys (Subfamily Meleagrince). |
|
The Wild Turkey The Wild Turkey, the largest of our game birds, ranges in eastern North America, or rather once did, from Maine, southern Wisconsin, and Dakota southward to the Gulf and westward over Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona into the table-lands of Mexico... |
|
The Guinea Fowls The Guinea-Fowls (subfamily Numidince), typified by the well-known domestic bird, are all natives of Africa and take their name from the country whence they were first introduced into Europe. |
|
The Grouse, Partridges, And Quails (subfamily Tetraoninoe) This important and well-known group, embracing as it does by far the greater number of valuable non-aquatic game birds, merits a very full and careful presentation. |
|
Ptarmigan Of all the various members of this group none is more interesting in many particulars than the Ptarmigan (Lagopus), of which some fifteen species and subspecies are recognized. |
|
Willow Ptarmigan The Ptarmigan are compact-bodied, typically Grouse-like birds ranging from twelve to about seventeen inches in length, and may be known at once by having the tarsi, feet, and toes completely and densely feathered. |
|
The Rock Ptarmigan (L. rupestris), the seasonal changes of plumage of which were described above, is also found in Arctic America and in northern Asia as far as the Ural Mountains. |
|
|