FAMILY ACCIPITRIDAE 239 



The species is one that is little known. The only definite records 

 are two birds in immature dress in the British Museum taken by 

 Arce at Calobre, Veraguas, one in 1869 and the other in 1870. On 

 April 14, 1949, as I descended a narrow, open ridge from the higher 

 slopes of Cerro Carbunco, northwest of Chepo, an adult eagle that 

 I was certain was this species crossed directly in front of me. At 

 my shot it pitched down the steep slope above the Rio Tranca. We 

 could not see where it struck because of the trees that blocked our 

 view, and though we searched long and carefully we were unable to 

 find the bird because of the rough and broken contours of the steep 

 descent. From its size, relatively short tail, and color, I felt certain 

 of the identification. 



Published accounts usually state that this eagle has a short bushy 

 crest, though actually the feathers on the back of the head are not 

 lengthened more than they are in related hawks that are regarded 

 as not crested. Amadon (Auk, 1949, pp. 53-56) has placed Urubi- 

 tornis as a synonym of Harpyhaliaetiis. And Hellmayr and Conover 

 (Cat. Birds Amer., pt. 1, no. 4, 1949, pp. 199-200) go further, as they 

 list solitarius as a subspecies of Harpyhaliaetus coronatus. Friedmann 

 (U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 50, pt. 10, 1950, p. 415) has called to attention 

 the similarity of solitaria to the greater black hawk, Buteogalhis 

 urubitinga, and it is my own opinion that affiliations of solitaria are 

 closer with Buteogalhis than they are with Harpyhaliaetus. It re- 

 sembles the greater black hawk in proportionate length of the feather- 

 ing on the back of the head, in rounded wing tip, in tarsal scutellation, 

 particularly at the lower end, and also in the reduction of feathering 

 on the side of the head. The much larger Harpyhaliaetus coronatus 

 has a distinct crest of narrow, elongated feathers, and appears com- 

 pletely different in other ways. 



In view of these differences, I prefer to maintain Urubitornis as a 

 separate generic entity pending further information. The internal 

 structure of the two groups as yet is not known. 



A larger race, Urubitornis solitaria sheffleri van Rossem, recognized 

 from the mountains of southeastern Sonora, with the wing in the 

 male 530, and in the female 552 mm., is said to have heavier tarsi 

 and toes, to be darker in the adult, and to have a definite subbasal 

 white band across the outer rectrices. This latter mark in typical 

 solitaria is indicated only as a grayish brown trace. 



In the original description of solitaria, cited in the heading above, 

 Tschudi listed this species only as from Peru, which is the type 

 locality given in most of the current accounts. In his Fauna Peruana, 

 Ornithologie, 1845-1846, p. 94, he states that he had only one specimen 



