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Show 18 ZOOLOGY OF TilE VOYAGE OF TilE DEAGLE. gregarious; they do not soar, and their flight is heavy and clumsy. On the ground they run with extreme quickness, putting out one leg before the other, and stretching forward their bodies, very much like pheasants. The sealers, who have sometimes, when pressed by hunger, eaten them, say that the flesh when cooked is quite white, like that of a fowl, and very good to eat-a fact which I, as well as some others of a party from the Beagle, who, owing to a gale of wind, were left on shor~ in northern Patagonia, until we were very hungry, can answer for, is far from being the case with the flesh of the Carrancha, or Polyborus Brasiliensis. It is a strange anomaly that any of the Falconidce should possess such perfect powers of running as is the case with this bird, and likewise with the Pltalcobamus montanus of D'Orbigny. It perhaps, indicates an obscure relationship with the Gallinaceous order-a relation which M. D'Orbigny suggests is still more plainly shown in the Secretary Bird, which he believes represents in Southern Africa, the Polyborinm of America. The JJ!. leucunts is a noisy bird, and utters several harsh cries ; of which, one is so like that of the English rook, that the scalers always call it by this name. It is a curious circumstance, as shewing how, in allied species, small details of habit accompany similar structure, that these hawks throw their heads upwards and backwards, in the same strange manner, as the Carranchas (the Tharu of Molina) have been described to do. The M. leucut·us, builds on the rocky cliffs of the sea-coast, but (as I was informed) only on the small outlying islets, and never on the two main islands : this is an odd precaution for so fearless a bird. 4. MILVAGO ALBOGULARIS. PLATE I. Polyborus, (Phalcoboonus) albogularis, Gould, Proceedings of Zoolog. Soc. Part V. (Jan. 1837.) p. 9. M. Fmm. fuscescenti- niger, marginibus plumarum inter scapulas fulvis ; primariis secundat·iisque albo ad ctpicem notatis; guld, pectore, corporeqtte subtus albis ; lateribus fusco sparsis ; rostro livido, lineis nig1·is ornato ; cera tarsisque jlavis. LoNG. tot. 20 unc. ! ; rostri, 1 § ; alre, 15if; caudoo, 9; tarsi, 3. Description of female specimen, believed to be applicable to butlt sexes. CoLOUR.-Head, back, upper wing coverts pitch black, passing into liver brown; .feathers ~n b~ck of neck and shoulders terminating in a yellowishbrown tip, of wlnch tmt the external portion of the primaries, and nearly the whole of the tertiaries partake. Tail liver brown, with a terminal white band nea~ly one inch broad ; base of the tectrices white, irregularly marked w1th brown : upper tail coverts white. All the feathers of the wing |
