518 BULLETIN 5 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



cc. Under tail coverts dirty whitish broadly banded with black. 



Q. nigra nigra, imm. (p. 518) 

 bb. Lighter; general color between neutral gray and deep neutral gray. 



c. Larger; wings over 330 mm. (Sonora) G. nigra livens, ad. (p 523) 



cc. Smaller; wings under 300 mm. (Darien and western Ecuador). 



Q. nigra balzarensis," ad. (p. 521) 



GERANOSPIZA NIGRA NIGRA (DuBus) 



Black Frog Hawk 



Adult (sexes alike). — Entire head, back, rump, upper tail coverts, 

 upper wing coverts, remiges, and entire underparts of body blackish 

 slate to slate-black; the nape with a concealed white patch, the upper 

 tail coverts basally banded with white, the feathers of the lower back 

 whitish at extreme base; the five or six outermost primaries with a 

 large white "window" on the inner web, at about the middle of their 

 length, and with another one, more broken and freckled with blackish 

 slate, basally; the inner primaries and the secondaries f redded with 

 white on the basal portion of the inner web; feathers of the abdomen, 

 flanks, and thighs, and under tail coverts very narrowly tipped with 

 white, thus forming narrow whitish bars which are rather widely 

 spaced except on the thighs, where they are close together; rectrices 

 black tipped with whitish or grayish white and crossed by two broad 

 white bands (20-28 mm. wide) which divide the tail length into thirds, 

 the more distal of the white bands much suffused with deep neutral 

 gray on the outer webs of the lateral rectrices; under wing coverts 

 blackish slate to slate-black, tipped and banded narrowly with white; 

 lores and cere plumbeous; bill black; iris crimson, tarsi, and toes 

 orange. 



Immature (sexes alike). — Similar to the adult, but the under tail 

 coverts broadly white basally and broadly banded with whitish so 

 that the blackish color is restricted to a few (usually three) broad 

 bands. 



Juvenal (sexes alike). — Similar to the adult, but with the chin, 

 upper throat, forehead, and superciliary line whitish, the cheeks and 

 anterior part of crown much streaked with the same; upperparts 

 generally with a slight brownish cast, almost chaetura black, upper 

 tail coverts tipped and banded with white; rectrices broadly white 

 basally, the basal area almost confluent with the more proximal of 

 the two white tail bands; breast and sides chaetura black, the feathers 

 prominently tipped with white to tilleul buff; abdomen, flanlts, 



" A still paler species, G. caeridescens (Vieillot) occurs in northern South America 

 from eastern Colombia to the Guianas and northern Brazil; another with two 

 races, characterized by having the underparts barred with white, G. g. gracilis 

 (Temminck) and G. g. flexipes Peters, inhabits South America from the southern 

 bank of the Amazon to northern Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. 



