Chapter IV: GENUS POLYBORUS. Vieillot, Analyse, p. 22. (1816.)

CARACARA. Cuvur. Reg. An., p. 316. (1817.)

Size smaller than the preceding; bill long, compressed, wide laterally; cere large; wings long, pointed; tail moderate, or rather long; tarsi long, rather slender, covered in front with large hexagonal and irregular scales, and laterally and horizontally with smaller; claws long, slightly curved, rather weak; space in front of and below the eye naked. Two species only form this genus, both of which are abundant birds of South and Central America.

1. Polyborus tharus. (Molina.) The Caracara Eagle. The Mexican Eagle.
Falco tharus. Molina, Sagg. Stor. Nat. del Chili. (1782.)
Falco cheriway. Jacquin, Beytr. Gesch. der Vogel, p. 17. (1784.)
Falco brasiliensis. Gmelin, Syst. Nat., I. p. 262. (1788.)
Falco plancus. Miller, Cimelia Physica.
Polyborus vulgaris. Vieill., Nouv. Dict., V. p. 257. (1816.)

Jacq. Vog., pl. 4; Miller & Shaw, Cim. Phys., 2d ed., pl. 17; Vieill.,
Gal., I. pl. 7; Spix., B. of Bras., I. pl. 1, _a_; Aud., B. of Am.,
pl. 161; oct. ed., I. pl. 4; Swains. Zool. Ill., I. pl. 2; Gay’s Chili
Orn., pl. 1.

Legs long; occipital feathers somewhat elongated. Adult. Head above,
back, rump, wings, broad abdominal belt and tibiæ brownish-black; neck
before and behind, sides of the head behind the eye, breast, upper and
under tail-coverts yellowish-white; on the breast and neck behind
finely barred transversely with black; tail for about two-thirds of
its length white, with numerous narrow bars of black, and widely
tipped with black; bill at base bluish; tip yellowish-white; tarsi and
toes yellow. Younger. Head above dark-brown; other upper parts
pale-brown, with paler edgings to many feathers; under-parts
dark-brown, nearly all the feathers having longitudinal central
stripes of dull white; throat yellowish-white; tail for the greater
part and its coverts above and below white, with numerous transverse
bands of pale ashy-brown, and tipped with brownish-black.

Dimensions. _Female_—total length (of skin), about 26 inches; wing,
17; tail, 10 inches. _Male_—larger?

Hab. Southern North America; Florida (Audubon); Texas; Mexico
(McCall). Abundant in South America. Spec. in Mus. Acad., Philada.

Obs. The Caracara Eagle has been observed in Florida, and is an inhabitant also of Texas and Mexico. It walks on the ground with facility, and otherwise resembles the Vultures in its habits; and, like them, lives on dead animals for the greater part. The original edition of Molina, in which a scientific name is given to this bird for the first time since the adoption of the binomial nomenclature, we have not seen; but in his second edition, Preface, p. 1 (Bologna, 1810), it is stated to have been published in 1782. His name undoubtedly has priority.

We are inclined to the opinion that this bird, and several more or less nearly allied species of South America, belong properly to the family of Vultures;—of all the habits of which they partake. This opinion is supported somewhat by Molina’s statement, that of the present species the female is the smaller (2d ed., p. 221), as Humboldt and others have observed of the Condor, and as appears to be the case in the family of Vultures, but not in that of the Falcons.