Читать книгу A Synopsis of the Birds of North America - John James Audubon - Страница 8

Bill short, as broad as deep at the base, the sides convex, the dorsal outline straight at the base, decurved towards the end; upper mandible with a festoon on the edges at the curvature, the tip trigonal, very acute; lower mandible with the edges slightly arched, the tip obtusely truncate. Nostrils oval, oblique, large, half-way between the ridge and the cere. Legs rather long; tarsus very short, remarkably thick, covered all round with hexagonal scales; toes also remarkably thick, the outer versatile larger than the inner, all scutellate only towards the end, and covered beneath with prominent, conical, acuminate scales; claws long, curved, convex beneath, tapering to a fine point. Plumage compact, imbricated; feathers of the head and neck narrow, acuminate; of the tarsus short and very narrow, without the elongated external tufts seen in all the other genera. Tail rather long, a little rounded. Intestine extremely long and slender, its greatest width 21/4 twelfths, the smallest 1/2 twelfth.

15. 1. Pandion Haliaetus. Common Osprey. – Fish Hawk. Fishing Eagle

Plate LXXXI. Adult male.

Bill bluish-black, cere light blue, feet pale greyish-blue tinged anteriorly with yellow. General colour of upper parts deep umber-brown, the tail barred with whitish on the inner webs; the upper part of the head and neck white, the middle part of the crown dark brown; a broad band of the latter colour from the bill down the side of the neck; lower parts white, the neck streaked with light brown; anterior tibial feather tinged with brown. Young with the feathers of the upper parts broadly tipped with brownish-white, the lower pure white.

Male, 23, 54. Female, 251/2, 58.

From Texas northward, and throughout the interior, as well as along the north-west coast. Resident in the south.

Fish Hawk, Falco Haliaetus, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. v. p. 13.

Falco Haliaetus, Bonap. Syn. p. 26.

Fish Hawk or Osprey, Falco Haliaetus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. i. p. 415, v. v. p. 362.