212 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



Total length, female 21 to 23 inches, wing 16 to 17, tail 9 inches; male 

 smaller. 



Hab. All of temperate North America. Europe. Spec, in Mus. Acad. Philada. 



We regard the plumage first described above as undoubtedly that of the 

 adult of this species, though it has never been given as such by any American 

 author. It corresponds precisely with European specimens in the Museum of 

 this Academy, well understood by the German ornithologists to be the adult of 

 A. lagopus, and figured as such in their works, of which some are cited above, 

 lu both adult and young plumage there are no characters whatever, so far as we 

 can see, by which American and European specimens can be distinguished from 

 each other. 



Our attention was first directed to the European species, and to the fact of the 

 adult being known to the German ornithologists, by Mr. Alfred Newton, F. L. S. 

 of Magdalene College, Cambridge, to whom we beg leave to acknowledge our 

 indebtedness for much valuable information derived during his late visit to the 

 United States. 



The other North American species of this genus are : 



2. Archibuteo sanctijohannis, (Gmelin.) 



Falco sanctijohannis, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 273, (1788.) 



Falco spadiceus, Gm. Syst. Nat.^i. p. 273? 



Falco niger, Wilson, Am. Orn. vi. p. 82, (1812.) 



Wilson's Am. Orn. vi. pi. 53, fig. 1, 2 ; Aud. B. of Am. pi. 422, fig. 1, pi. 166, 

 (young ?) 



In young plumage this bird considerably resembles the preceding, but is 

 quite distinct, and generally not difficult to be distinguished. It is larger and 

 has the under parts much more spotted in the young, while of course the 

 clear biack of the adult of the present bird is totally unlike any known plumage 

 of the preceding. In the adult of this species, the tail is of the same black as 

 the general plumage, with one well defined band of white. This species has 

 not yet been observed in Western North America, though rather abundant in 

 the Eastern and North Eastern States. 



3. Archibcteo ferrugineds, (Lichtenstein.) 



Buteo ferrugineus, Licht. Trans. Acad. Berlin, 1838, p. 428. 



Archibuteo regalis, G. R. Gray, Gen. Birds i. pi. 6. 



Buteo californicus, Hutchins, California Magazine, March 1857. 



Gray, Gen. of Birds, i. pi. 6 ; Cassin, B. of Cal. and Texas, 1 pi. 26. 



This bird is larger than either of the preceding and quite different in every 

 known stage of plumage. It is apparently exclusively western, and like the 

 other species of this genus the adult and young are quite unlike each other in 

 colors. Both are described and figured in our work cited above. 



Genus Lanids, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 134, (1766.) 



The species of this genus inhabiting the United States, though not difficult to 

 be distinguished from each other, have been singularly confused by authors. 

 No less than five distinct species have been mistaken for, or rather condensed 

 into two. The North American species are as follows : 



1 Lanius borealis, Vieillot. 



Lanius borealis, Vieill. Ois. d'Am. Sept. 1, p. 80, (1807.) 



Sw. and Rich. Faun. Bor. Am. Birds, pi. 33 ; Vieill. Ois. d'Am. Sept. pi. 50. 



Larger than L. septenlrionalis, and is the largest known species of North 

 America. It is darker colored than that species, and is well described and 

 fio-ured by Swainson, as above cited, who mistakes it, however, for the bird de- 

 scribed aud figured by Wilson under the name La7iius excubilor, which is the 

 species immediately succeeding. 



Specimens of this bird are in the fine collection made in Washington Territory 

 by George Suckley, M. D., a highly talented young naturalist, late of the United 

 States Army. It appears to be a northern and Western species. 



[December, 



