. American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States [microform]. Birds; Oiseaux. considered them as identical, contrary to the opinion of Vieillot, whose authority, it is true, could in this case be of little weight, as he had not seen the species, but like many others had merely given it a name; his sole knowledge of it being derived from the work of d'Azara. We have now yielded only to the decision of Temminck (who has lately intro- duced the young into his Planches Colorizes), but not without much reluctance, e.«i)ecially as that diHtiiiguishcd ornithologist ha
. American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States [microform]. Birds; Oiseaux. considered them as identical, contrary to the opinion of Vieillot, whose authority, it is true, could in this case be of little weight, as he had not seen the species, but like many others had merely given it a name; his sole knowledge of it being derived from the work of d'Azara. We have now yielded only to the decision of Temminck (who has lately intro- duced the young into his Planches Colorizes), but not without much reluctance, e.«i)ecially as that diHtiiiguishcd ornithologist has evidently not been at the trot'ble of comparing the two species. Otherwise, he would certainly not have omitted noticing their affinities and differential characters ; since in the history of species so closely allied as these two, the differential choraeters arc of more importance and utility than the most labored descriptions. This comparison we have carefully instituted ;een our American specimens, and others from Africa and Java. They agreed perfectly, especially with that from Java, in every, the minutest character, even feather by feather, much better than birds of prey of the same species, and from the same country, do generally. They arc even more alik<i than different specimens from the old continent of the Black-winged itself, since that species is .•< in the tail being in Faho dispar con.'tantly irregular, while in F. melanoptcrus it is even ; or to explain it more clearly, the outer, tail-feather is rather the longest in the .'African, and more than half an inch shorter than the next in the/Vnerican species. This essential character is much more conspicuous in Teinminck's plate than in ours, owing to the tail being spread. In the Black-winged also, the lower wing-coverts are destitute of the black patch so conspicuous in the American binl; a female from Java has, however, a slight indication of it, but no trace of it is observable in our Africa
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbirds, booksubjectois
