116 Sir W. Jardine on the Ornithology of the Island of Tobago. 



of temperature, with seasonable alternations of wet and dry 

 throughout the year, the high and uncleared state of the lands 

 perhaps causing more rain than is desirable. » Mr. Kirk has 

 spent several nights on the elevated parts of the main ridge, 

 especially about the sources of the Queen's river, and found it 

 there intensely cold towards the morning. And while the ther- 

 mometer suspended from a tree there stood at 64°, the average in 

 dwelling-houses was about 83°. 



"Winds from the south-east prevail for nine months, and are 

 succeeded from the month of November until February by 

 northerly and north-easterly winds, productive of a depression of 

 the thermometer to 69° in places only 450 feet above the level of 

 the sea/' 



In an island so limited in extent as that of Tobago we are 

 prepared to find only a small number of raptorial birds, and al- 

 though we have reason to believe that there are one or two addi- 

 tional species met with at least occasionally upon the island, our 

 collections contain only four, two of which are forms of the south- 

 ern continent ; one has its head-quarters in the northern, but ex- 

 tends also to several of the islands ; and the fourth, an owl, is to 

 a certain extent common to both. 



MORPHNUS URUBITINGA, CuV. S.* 



Several birds have been received chiefly in an immature state, 

 deep brown above, marked with ochreous yellow and pale rufous 

 principally on the lower parts and on the upper tail-covers. The 

 figure in the * Planches Coloriees ' represents well this condition. 

 Some of those in this plumage are marked females, and one is 

 mentioned as having weighed three lbs. imperial. Our adult spe- 

 cimens are entirely black, except the upper tail-covers, middle and 

 tip of the tail-feathers, which are white, and the quills at the base 

 and secondaries, which are barred with dull gray. None of the 

 feathers on the body, but those on the occiput only, exhibited 

 any white underneath when raised, as stated of the " Negro/ 3 

 No. xx. of Azara, and which we believe has been considered as 

 identical with the Urubitinga. 



The Urubitinga is a southern form. According to D'Orbigny, 

 u it extends over a very large portion of the South American con- 

 tinent (but only to the east of the Cordilleras) in the level regions, 

 which are interspersed with forests and extensive marshes, and 

 still more in the vicinity of stagnant waters and limited flats. In 

 the province of Corientes we have always observed it by the 

 borders of lakes, marshes or rivers, perched on the highest part 

 of dead or dying trees, where it hunts, or upon the lower branches 



* Species marked n. are also found in North America; s. in South Ame- 

 rica; and n.s. in both. 



