BROAD-WINGED HAWK 243 



other, 16 days old, the down is whiter and the remiges and rectrices 

 are growing out and beginning to burst their sheaths ; and there are 

 a few feathers appearing on the scapulars and upper back. The 

 third, 21 days old, is still downy on the head, neck, central breast, 

 and belly, but elsewhere it is well feathered ; the feathers of the upper 

 parts are "warm sepia", with "tawny" edgings; those of the breast 

 are "warm buff", with broad streaks of sepia ; and the tail is 2 inches 

 long and partly in sheaths. 



A fully grown young bird in full juvenal plumage, July 29, shows 

 the complete development of the above plumage. The edgings on 

 the upper parts are narrower; the wings are much as in the adult 

 but whiter below ; the under parts are whiter but with a buffy tinge 

 and with large hastate spots or streaks of dark sepia on the breast 

 and with rounder spots on the tibiae; the tail is dark brown, "fus- 

 cous", above with indistinct darker bars, the inner webs being whiter 

 with more distinct bars; the under surface of the tail is gray, with 

 bars and a broad subterminal band of darker gray. 



This plumage is worn for nearly a year with no change except by 

 wear and fading. Beginning with the wings in April or May, and 

 continuing through the summer, a complete molt produces by Sep- 

 tember a plumage that is practically adult. Adults have one annual 

 complete molt from April or May to August or September. Mr. 

 Burns (1911) has given a very full account in detail of all the molts 

 and plumages, to which the reader is referred. 



Mr. Eiley (1908) has called attention to the fact that "birds from 

 the eastern United States exhibit apparently two phases of plumage ; 

 a light grayish brown backed bird with little or no reddish edges 

 to the feathers, and with the bars below prout's brown; and a dark 

 bird with the feathers of the sides of neck and upper back strongly 

 edged with cinnamon-rufous, and the bars below of the latter color, 

 heavier, and sometimes confluent on the chest." There is also a 

 melanistic phase, which Robert Ridgvvay (1886a) describes in part as 

 follows : "Plumage of head, neck, and body, entirely continuous dark 

 sooty brown, without the faintest indication of markings, even on 

 the lower tail-coverts or lining of the wing; back darker, with a 

 chalky cast in certain lights." 



Dr. B. H. Bailey (1917) described as a new subspecies, Buteo 

 platyptei'us iow^ensis, a bird evidently exactly like the one described 

 by Mr. Ridgway, and mentions several others taken in Manitoba, 

 Minnesota, and Iowa. These are all evidently melanistic individuals 

 of Buteo platypterus platyfterus. As normal broad-winged hawks 

 are common in the same region, and as melanism or other color 

 phases are known to occur only in limited portions of the ranges of 

 other species, there is no reason for recognizing this as a subspecies. 



