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Show 156 GENUS KEGERHINUS, KAUP. Regerhinus KAUP, MUS. Senck. iii, 1845, 262. Type, Falco uncinates ILLIO. Cymindis SWAINS. 1837, et AUCT. ( nee. Cuv. 1817). CH.#- Form very light; the feet very weak ( almost Steatoruithine); bill very large, greatly hooked, and much compressed; wiugs and tail large, the latter slightly ronuded. Tomia without indentations or perceptible sintiations; gouys nearly straight; totniuin of the lower mandible very convex. Nostril very small, slit- like, narrower, and more horizontal than in Leptodon. Tarsus about equal to the middle toe, covered with large, irregular, hexagonal scutellre ( as in Leptodon and Elanoides); toes and claws compressed; middle claw with its inner edge much produced, as in Elanoides. Kemiges and rectrices greatly developed, very broad, and of a soft texture. Contour- feathers of the inferior surface remarkably broad, their tips nearly truncated; feathers of the pileum soft and blended, with no tendency to an occipital crest. Secondaries very long and broad, about three- fourths as long as the primaries; third, fourth, or fifth quills longest; first shortest; outer six with inner webs faintly sinuated. Tail large, but much shorter than the wing, slightly rounded, the feathers broad and soft. Lore wholly naked, with a narrow strip of bristles extending from the anterior angle of the eye to the anterior part of the frontal feathers, which extend forward so as to almost cover the top of the cere. After- shafts better developed than iu Leptodon. This genus is so very distinct from Leptodon that it is a matter of surprise why it should ever have been considered synonymous. The form of the bill is entirely different and strikiugly distinctive, while there are very conspicuous differences throughout its external structure. The feet are weaker than in any of the allied genera, the toes and claws being more compressed. In its pterylosis, it is more like Avicida wbcrti-tata than any other species of the group, the contour- feathers of the lower surface having that same remarkable breadth and nearly truncated termination, while the wings and tail are quite similar. There is also considerable resemblance in the colors and markiugs. In Aricida, however, the lore is feathered, the occipital feathers are pointed aud crest- like, and the bill more like that of Leptodon. The species of this genus present so many phases of plumage that they are in a state of great confusion. We do not pretend to have made any progress toward elucidating them, but present our views so far as they have resulted from the examination of the material available. KEGERHINUS UXCINATUS. Falco uncinates TEMM. PL Col. 1824, pis. 103, 104,115. Cymindis uncinates LESSON, Man. Orn. i, 1828, 91; Tr. Orn. 1831, 55.- Viu. Ziml. Journ. i, 337.- STEPHENS, Zool. xiii, 22.- GRAY, Gen. 13.1845, 25, pi. 9, lig. 7 ; Hand List, i, 1869, 136.- KAUP, Class. Siing. u. Vog. 1844, 124.- BONAP. Consi>. Av. i, 1850, 21.- BURM. Th. Bras, ii, 1856, 108.- SCL. & SALV. P. Z. S. im, 369 ( Isth. Panama); Nom. Neotr. 1873, 122.- LEOT. Ois. Trinidad, 1866, 36 - LAWR. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ix, 1868, 134 ( San Jose*, Costa Rica).- FINSCH, P. /-. 1870, 557 ( Trinidad).- S. PELZ. Orn. Bras. 1871, 5, 398.- SCHLEG. Rev. Acr. 1873, 136.- SHARPE, P. Z. S. 1873, 419. * I have been unable to obtain bones of this genus, bnt tbe osteological characters are probably very similar to those of Leptodon and Elanoides. Nitzsch mentions nothing peculiar in the pterylosis. A |
