694 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— RAPTORES — ACCIPITRES. 



with ashy. Primaries darkoniug from cok)r of back, tlieir inner webs spaced lighter and darker, 

 and with extensive white areation, which characters increase on secondaries. Iris brown ; cere 

 and feet bright yellow; bill and claws blue-black. Wing of $ 10.00; tail 7.00; tarsus 2.75; 

 middle toe without claw 1.50. Length, 16.00-18.00. Wing of 9 11.00; tail 8.00. Young: 

 Blackish-brown above, much variegated with reddish -buff ; white upper tail- coverts spotted 

 with blackish; below, whitish, dashed witli large blackish marks; Hags barred; tail dark 

 brown, with numerous narrow blackisli bars. Central America and Mexico, regularly into 

 southwestern U. S., said to straggle up the Mississippi Valley to Illinois, but only ascertained 

 to breed over our border in Arizona and New Mexico, though it doubtless does so in some parts 

 of Texas ; it is only known as a summer visitor, arriving in March or April, breeding in May 

 and June, leaving late in the fall. Nest usually in high trees, not peculiar ; eggs 2-3, 2.00 X 

 1.60, colorless or with a few faint spots. 



URUBITIN'GA. (South American nruhu, a vulture ; thiga. bright.) Anthracite Buz- 

 zards. General characters of Bideo, but system of coloration jieculiar, the adults being chiefly 

 black and white, the tail typically broadly zoned. The limits of the genus vary with different 

 writers; it contains several species, confined to America, one of them reaching our border. In 

 this the tail is about § as long as wing, emarginate or nearly even ; wing with 3d-5th quills 

 longest, 2d about equal to 6th, 1st very short; outer 4 sinuate on inner webs; point of folded 

 wing reaching but little beyond the longest secondaries; bill lengthened and rather weak ; tomia 

 of upper mandible strongly festooned or almost h)bated back of the hook ; gonys convex; nostrils 

 large, subcircular; lores extensively denuded; tarsus much longer than middle toe and claw, 

 feathered but a little way down in front, scutellate before and behind, reticulated laterally like 

 bases of toes, which in the rest of their length are broadly scutellate. 



U. anthraci'na. (Lat. arithr<(cinus, carbuncular; in this case coal-black.) Anthracite 

 Buzzard. Mexican Black Hawk. Adult J*?- Coal-ldack; feathers of head and neck 

 with concealed white bases ; tail white at extreme base and tip, and crossed about the middle 

 with a broad white zone ; tips of its coverts white ; quills of wing more or less mottled with 

 rusty-brown ; cere, rictus, base of bill, and feet, yellow ; bill and claws blackish. Length 

 21.00-23.00; wing 13.00-15.00; tail 8.00-10.00; tarsus 3.25; 9 larger than ^; wing up to 

 16.00, etc. Young : Extensively varied with rusty or buff, which is gradually obliterated as 

 the bird matures ; tail numerously barred witli black and white — 6-9 such bars, mostly brolceu 

 or otherwise irregular. Whole under parts white, more or less tinged with buff, pencilled on 

 throat, heavily striped on breast and sides, closely barred across on tibiae and crissum, with 

 blackish. Feathers of liead, nape, and fore back largely white or whitish, appearing in streaks 

 among the overlying blackish of the ends of the feathers. Exposed portions of primaries black- 

 ish, obsoletely crossed with lighter; these feathers liglitening basally and internally, where 

 narrow blackish bars alternate with wider spaces of white tinged with brown and fulvous. 

 Secondaries and larger coverts brown with narrow dark bars, their inner webs also indented 

 with whitish and tawny. The younger the bird the more whitish or buff prevails over dark 

 colors. The contrast between cross-barred tibije and lengthwise-striped breast and sides is 

 always notable. The tail varies from rounded through square to emarginate. A remarkable 

 Hawk of Central America, West Indies, and Mexico, N. to Arizoua, New Mexico, and the 

 Lower Rio Grande valley of Texas, apparently not common over our border, and not resident ; 

 breeds; nest in trees; eggs 1-3, 2.30 X 1-85, greenish-white, moderately spotted with light 

 and dark browns, laid April-June. 



Note. — Omjchotes gruberi Ridow. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philada. Dec. 1870, p. 149; B. P.. and R. Hist. N. A. Birds, 

 iii, 1874, p. 254 ; RiDGw. Rod and Gun, May 1, 1875, p. 65; Bull. U S. Geol. Surv. Terr, ii, Apr. 1876, p. 134; admitted in 

 the Key, orig. ed. 1872, p. 219, and 2d ed. 1884, p. 553, is not Nortli American : see Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. Apr. 1885, p. 30, 

 and Key, 3d ed. 1887, p. 883. It is a Sandwich Island Fish Hawk, originally described as Buteo soUtarius by T. R. Peale, 

 U. S. Expl. Exped. 1848, p. 62, and figured as such by Sclater, Challenger Reps. Birds, 1881, p. 90, pi. 21 ; Pandion 

 solilarius Cassin, U. S. Expl. Exped. 1858, p. 97, pi. 4 : Polioaetus soUtarius Shaepb, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. i, 1874, p. 452 

 Its original ascription to " California " was simply a mistake. 



