Mr. P. L. Sclater on new species of Birds. 227 



2. U. anthracina. Media, caudce fascia lata et margine apicali 

 albis. 



3. U. schistacea. Minor, caudce fascia angusta et margine apicali 

 albis. 



Such are these birds in their adult plumage : in their immaturity 

 they are quite different. I have not yet seen the young of XI. schis- 

 tacea, as I now think the specimen in one of Salle's Mexican col- 

 lections called Morphnus schistaceus, juv. (P. Z. S. 1857, p. 227) 

 does not really belong here ; but the other two species in their im- 

 mature state are both irregularly flammulated on the lower surface 

 and back, and have numerous buffy-white cross-bars on the tail and 

 under tail-coverts. Specimens of U. zonura in this state are in the 

 British Museum, and we have a fine example of a similar bird now 

 alive in our Gardens. 



I have hitherto used for these birds the generic term Morphnus, 

 following Mr. G. R. Gray and other writers ; but on considering that 

 the true type of Morphnus is the Falco guianensis of Daudin — a bird 

 of different structure and more nearly allied to Thrasaetus — I think 

 they stand better disconnected. But the Falco unicinctus of Tem- 

 minck and Falco meridionalis of Latham — two allied species — for 

 which Kaup's term Spizigeranus may be employed subgenerically — 

 ought, as M. de Lafresnaye * has observed, to come close to the true 

 JJrubitingce ; and Buteogallus with its two species (cequinoctialis and 

 nigricollis) follows next. A bird more closely corresponding to the 

 JJrubitingce. in its changes of colouring is Urubitornis solitaria, of 

 which M. Jules Verreaux has described the several stages of plu- 

 mage in the Society's ' Proceedings f; ' but it is distinguishable by its 

 shorter and much more robust tarsi. 



2. Buteo zonocercus, sp. nov. 



Schist acescenti-niger unicolor, alis extus brunnescente tinctis : 

 remigum pogoniis interioribus albo obsolete transfasciatis : 

 cauda nigra ; vitta inferiore lata, et alteris duabus superiori- 

 bus angustioribus et imperfectis cum margine apicali albis : 

 rostro nigro, cera aurantia, pedibus fiavis. 

 Long, tota 17'0, alae 14*7, caudae 7'5, rostri a rictu T3, tarsi 2*9. 

 Hab. Guatemala. 



In plumage this bird is very much like the typical XJrubitingce, 

 being of a nearly uniform ashy-black, tinged with brown on the sca- 

 pularies and secondaries, and with a broad white band across the 

 tail. Above this are two other bands, much narrower and not quite 

 complete, and the tail is likewise tipped with white. The colour of 

 these bands is pure white on the under surface ; on the upper sur- 

 face it is cinereous on the outer webs of the lateral rectrices, and on 

 both webs of the medial pair, but pure white on the inner webs of 

 the lateral tail-feathers. The lowest band is about If inch in 

 breadth, the second not half an inch, and the highest is quite nar- 

 row. There are distinct traces of white cross-bands on the inner 



* Rev. Zool. 1848, p. 240. f See P. Z. S. 1856, p. 145. 



