68 ]\rr. J. II. Giirncy's Notes on 



sequence, I propose to treat them both as comprehended in 

 the genus Buteo, that genus being one which consists of an 

 aggregation of several natural subgeneric groups, easy to per- 

 ceive in studying the genus, though difficult to define by any 

 characters save such as chiefly rest on peculiarities of colo- 

 ration and markings at difi'erent ages. 



Mr. Ridgway, in an able paper to which allusion has ah'eady 

 been made in an editorial notice in 'The Ibis^ for 1875, 

 p. 500, proposes that the genus Crawirex should be used to in- 

 clude all those Buzzards which have " only three of the outer 

 primaries emarginated on their inner webs;" but I fear that 

 this is scarcely a character which can be satisfactorily used as 

 a basis of generic or subgeneric distinction, inasmuch as it oc- 

 casionally happens that the outline of the fourth primary varies . 

 somewhat as to the degree in which it is emarginated, or sin- 

 uated, in different individuals of the same species ; and this is 

 especially the case in Buteo erythronotus, in which most of the 

 specimens which I have examined have had the fourth primary 

 distinctly emarginated, though I have seen two examples in 

 which the emargination was barely visible ; and the latter 

 seems to have been the case with the specimens examined by 

 Mr. Ridgway, since he includes this species amongst those 

 which have but three emarginated primaries, as he also does 

 B. poliosomus, of which I have never examined a specimen 

 with less than four primaries distinctly emarginated. 



In considering the genus Buteo in the extended sense to 

 which I have just alluded, I prop'ose to commence by refer- 

 ring to B. erythronotus, and to those species which appear to 

 me to be its nearest allies. 



Mr. Sharpe gives the length of the wing in the female of 

 B. erythronotus as 18*5 inches, which I think must be a mis- 

 print, as in the largest female that I have measured the length 

 from the carpal joint to the tip of the wing is only 16'5. 



From an examination of the series of specimens of this 

 Buzzard in the Norwich Museum, I am led to believe that 

 the male bird passes through three distinct phases of plumage, 

 the first being that which is described by Mr. Sharpe as 

 " voung/' and which is common to both sexes, the second 



