FALCONID^ — THE HAWKS — BUTEO. 477 



wing, IS.SO to 1G.50 ; tail, 8.00 to 8.50 ; tarsus, 2.50. Bill dark slate-color ; tarsi, toes, and 

 cere, yellow. (Cassin.) 



Hab, Rocky Mountains and British America to Lower ^Missouri. California ? 



Average .size equal to those of the previously deserihed division. 



Should tliis prove the same as B. imif/natus, the name Siminsonii will 

 have precedence. Dr. Bryant thinks that the adult B. Hnrlani of Audubon 

 may be also the same, Ijut Professor Baird informs me by letter, tliat ]Mr. 

 Kennicott lias obtained wliat lie considers a black form of B. Swuinsonii in 

 Britisli America, from ■which I suppose that lie does not consider B. Harlani 

 (Audulxjii) the same. There are also two or tliree jNIexican black hawks 

 described, which may be the adult plumage of some of tliose described by 

 Cassin ; as, for instance, Professor Baird thinks B. fulic/inosus, Sclater, the 

 adult of B. oxypterus, Cassin, neither of wliich has yet been found in Califor- 

 nia.* Many specimens and notes on these difficult birds will be recjuired 

 to determine wlietlier the black ones are distinct or merely the perfect plu- 

 mage of others wliicli may themselves be merely different stages of plumage, 

 of a few true species whose limits are undetermined. At any rate, the 

 various stages can as weU be described under si.x; names as under two. 



Buteo elegans, C'Assm. 



THE ELEGANT HAWK. 



Butco elnjans, C.ISSIN, Pr. A. N. Sc. I'liil. VII. 1855, 281. In. P. R. Rep. Birds, IX. 28. — 

 Newberry, VI. iv. 75. — Kenxerly, X. iv. 19. — Heer.ma.nx, X. vi. .12 ; pi. ii. iii. — 

 Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 325. — Coues, Pr. Pliil. Ac. 1866, 45. — Cooper, XII. iii. Zool. 

 ofW. T. 147. 



Sp. Cu.\r. Above dark brown, feathers of head and back edged with rufous ; upper 

 tail coverts narrowly tipped with white. Shoulders dark rufous, each feather with a nar- 

 row central line of dark brown ; upper wing coverts dark brown, their inner webs edged 

 witli rufous, with transverse stripes and partly concealed circular spots and tips of white. 

 Primary and secondary quills brownish-black, with numerous iiTegular bands of white, 

 running obliipiely on their inner webs, all the quills tijiped with white. Tail brownisli- 

 black, white at base, with four white bands and a white tip. Tliroat brownish-black, with 

 a few white feathers ; breast dark rnfous, unspotted, and other under parts of the same 

 color, with numerous, nearly regular, transverse bars of reddish-white. Under wing 

 coverts dark rufous, transversely barred with reddish-white. Dark lines on shafts of 

 breast-feathers. 



Young. Above dull brown, many feathers edged with reddish-white or rufous, especially 

 on Ihe back and wing coverts. Quills brownish-black, their inner webs barred with white. 

 Tail brown, tinged ashy, with ten or twelve narrow darker bars, and tipped with white. 



* Figured by Baird, Birds of N. Amcr. 1860 ; pi. xv. 



