MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 325 



mens from Massachusetts now before me vary as follows : Some are nearly 

 unspotted beneath, others, sparsely spotted, have the spots mainly restrict- 

 ed to the pectoral region ; others, in which the spots are equally few, 

 have them mainly accumulated on the abdominal region, while still other? 

 have them so numerous as to occupy the greater part of the lower surface, 

 sometimes covering the abdomen in an almost unbroken broad band. 

 They likewise vary in the amount of rufous tint in the plumage, in some 

 it being very slight, while others are as strongly ferruginous as any of the 

 California specimens (B. montanus) I have yet seen. 



The Buteo borealis was first described by Latham in his " General 

 Synopsis of Birds,"* in 1781, under the names of "cream-colored buz- 

 zard " and " American buzzard," the first name being applied to the 

 young, f and the last to the adult stage of plumage. Pennant, in his 

 " Arctic Zoology," % also redescribes the immature bird as the " Leverian 

 falcon," and to these several descriptions of Latham and Pennant, Gmelin, 

 in lus " Systema Naturas,'' gave respectively the names Falco jamaicensis, 

 F. borealis, and F. Leverianus. Some twenty years later the Buteo borealis 

 was redescribed by Vieillot, in his '• Histoire des Oiseaux de l'Amerlque 

 Septentrionale," as Acc'qnter ruficaudus and Buteo ferruyineicaudus, both 

 names evidently referring to the mature or nearly mature bird ; and again 

 ten years later, in the " Nouvcau Dictionnaire d'Histoire Naturelle," as 

 Buteo fulvus and B. americanus. Audubon, in 1831, figured and described 

 a specimen from Louisiana under the name Falco Harlani. This speci- 

 men, which was finally sent to the British Museum, has been regarded by 

 Mr. G. 11. Gray and others as only a very dark-colored example of B. 

 borealif.% In the same year Richardson and Swainson reported the Buteo 

 vulgaris, in their " Fauna Boreali- Americana," as an inhabitant of North 

 America, and of which they figure an immature male. As already re- 

 marked, the B. vulgaris, in certain stages of plumage, is not readily distin- 

 guishable from B. borealis, so that the mistake is a perfectly excusable one. 

 This form, however, was for some time currently received by most writers 

 as a species distinct from the B. borealis, ana to which the name B. Swain- 

 sorii was given by Bonaparte. In 1832 Nuttall described a Buteo buteoiiles, 

 which, though referred by Bonaparte to B. lineatus, and by Cassin to B. 

 pennsylvanicus, seems to me to much more nearly agree with B. borealis. 

 In 1840 the same writer described a B. montanus, which was subsequently 



* Vol. I, pp. 49, 50, Nos. 30 and 31. 



t Latham observes: "This beautiful specimen was sent to me from Jamaica by an 

 intelligent friend and a good naturalist, who did not hint the least of its being a variety 

 of the common buzzard [Buteo vulgaris auct.], which I should have otherwise sus- 

 pected." 



J Vol. II, p. 206. No. 101. i Cat. of Birds in British Museum. 



