| OCR Text |
Show STUDIES OF THE AMERICAN FALCONID. E. BY ROBERT RIDGWAY. GENUS KTSUS, CUVIER. INTRODUCTION. The latest authority on the birds of the family to tvhich the genus Xi* u8 belongs ( the " Catalogue of the Accipitres, or Diurnal Birds of Prey, in tlje Collection of the British Museum", by Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe*) allows eleven American species which we consider as belonging to this genus as properly restricted, they being included in that work in the genus " Accipiter." The species recognized by Mr. Sharpe are the following:- ( 1.) " 2. . Accipiter fuscus." ( p. 135.) ( 2.) '* 3. Accipiter cooperi." ( p. 137.) ( 3.) " 4. Accipiter tinus." ( p. 139.) ( 4.)- " 8. Accipiter collaris." ( p. 144.) ( 5.) " 13. Accipiter erythrocnemis." ( p. 147.) ( 6.) " 14. Accipiter chionogaster." ( p. 148.) ( 7.) " 16. Accipiter ventralis." ( p. 149.) ( 8.) " 10. Accipiter guttatus." ( p. 152.) ( 9.) " 20. Accipiter pileatus." ( p. 153.) ( 10.) " 21. Accipiter bicolor." ( p. 154.) ( 11.) " 22. Accipiter chilensis." ( p. 155.) Besides the above, two species which are probably closely allied to this group, are given, but it seems to us erroneously, under the genus Astur, these being the Falco poliogaster of TEMSIINCK and the Astur pec-toralis of BONAPAETE. These two remarkable and rare species we have had no opportunity to examine, in order to verify the propriety of including them in the genus Astur, but the probability is very strong that thev will prove subgenerically, if not generically, distinct from the typical members of that genus. To aid us in the study of this difficult group, we have had access to the collections of the principal museums of the United States; the National museum, at Washington, the collection of the Philadelphia Academy of ^ Natural Sciences, the American Museum at Central Park in New York City, the museum of the Boston Society of Natural History, and the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass., furnishing the bulk of the material. Two species not known to exist in any American museum were furnished for examination by Mr. Osbert Salvin, of England, who kindly loaned his large and elegant series of these birds for the purpose; the unique type of another was obtained from the museum of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., through the courtesy of Professor James Orton, its collector; and Mr. George N. Lawrence, of * London, 1874, 8 vo., pp. 479, pie. xiv. |
