96 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER . 



9. Asio brachyotus, Forster. 



Strix sandwchensis, Bloxam, Toy. Blonde, p. 250. 



Asio galapagoensis, Cassin, Mamm. and Orn., L T .S. Expl. Exp., p. 207. 



Asio acciptrinus, Sliarpe, Cat. B., vol. ii p. 234. 



Otus brachyotus, Scl., Proc. Zool. Soc, 1878, p. 348. 



[No. 544. Male. Eyes yellow. Brought on board alive.] 



10. Buteo solitarius, Peale (PL XXL). 



Buteo solitarius, Peale, Zool. U. S. Expl. Exp., Birds, p. G2 (1848); Scl., Proc. Zool. Soc, 



1878, p. 348. 

 Pandion solitarius, Cassin, Mamm. & Orn. U. S. Expl. Exp., p. 97, Atlas, pi. iv. 

 Polioaetus solitarius, Sliarpe, Cat. B., vol. i. p. 452. 



[No. 540. Female. Eyes brown ; cere and legs yellow ; bill black.] 



Mr J. H. Gurney has kindly examined this interesting bird for me (of which two 

 specimens were obtained, but one of them was subsequently lost), and supplied me with 

 the following notes : — 



" The female Buzzard brought from Owhyhee by the Challenger Expedition (No. 

 540 in that collection) appears to be of the same species, though in a different stage of 

 plumage, as the previously unicpie specimen from the same island, which is preserved in 

 the Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, and which was described 

 by Peale, in the first edition of the Zoology of the United States Exploring Expedition, 

 published in 1848, under the name of Buteo solitarius. 



"In the subsequent edition of this work, published in 1858, and edited by the late 

 Mr Cassin, the generic name of Buteo, as applied to this species, was dropped, and that 

 of Pandion substituted, with the following remark : — ' This bird is strictly a member of 

 a sub-genus of the generic group Pandion designated Polioaetus by Dr Kaup.' (Vide op. 

 cit., p. 98.) 



" Mr Kidgway, on the contrary, after an examination of the type specimen, 

 wrote to me that he considered it a ' Buteonine form differing from the true Buteones 

 only .... in the system of coloration, which reminds us somewhat of Milvago 

 chimachima.' 



" In the specimen brought home in the Challenger there is much less resemblance 

 to the coloration of Milvago chimachima, and nothing, in my opinion, to justify the 

 removal of this species from the genus Buteo. 



" The following is a comparison of the measurements of the Challenger example 

 with those of the type specimen as given by Mr Cassin in the work to which I have 

 referred : — 



