234 Mr. J. II. Gurncy^s Notes on 



I may also observe that Mr. Sliarpe gives the colour of the 

 iris in the adult male of his G. caerulescens as " red ;" but 

 Mr. W. B. Lee, in 'The Ibis" (1873, p. 135), mentions a 

 specimen which he shot in the territory of the Argentine 

 Republic, but of which he does not record the sex, as having 

 the irides " bright yellow ;" and the adult female is also de- 

 scribed by Prince ]\Iaximilian of Wied as having a " very pale 

 yellow " iris, which is confirmed by D'Orbigny, who speaks of 

 this species as having "pale yellow eyes "'^. 



The genus Geranospizias is followed in Mr. Sharpens cata- 

 talogue by that very curious West- African Hawk, Astur ma- 

 crurus, of Hartlaub, which Mr. Sharpe, I think very properly, 

 erects into a distinct genus under the name of Urotriorchis, 

 between which and the allied African genus Melierax Mr. 

 Sharpe has intercalated an American form, Falco unicinctus, 

 of Temminck, for which he accepts (see Addenda, at p. 456) 

 Mr. Ridgway^s generic name of Antenor. I venture to dis- 

 sent from the position which Mr. Sharpe assigns to this genus, 

 and am disposed to prefer the view suggested by Mr. Ridgway 

 in his Catalogue of the Falconidse in the Boston Museum 

 (p. 23, note), that it is "intermediate between Buteo and 

 Urubitinga -/' and, indeed, upon Mr. Sharpens own definition, 

 it would appear to belong to his " subfamily Buteoninse," 

 as (according to tbe measurements of a male skeleton from 

 Mexico in the Norwich Museum) the tibia is 4| inches in 

 length, and the tarsus only 3 inches, the length of the hind 

 claw in the male being \\ inch, which is less than the diflfer' 

 ence between the tarsus and the tibia. 



In Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway's recent work 

 the 'Birds of North America'' (vol. iii. p. 249), those gentle- 

 men distinguish the North- American form of Antenor from 

 the Southern under the designation of " variety harrisi," with 

 the following observation : — " It seems that South-American 

 birds of this species never attain the simple tricoloured plu- 



* [The iris of a specimen of Geranospiza ni(/ra, sliot by me at Duenas, 

 in 1859, was "burnt sienna, the outer portion being lighter-coloured j 

 legs blood-orange; cere black." (See Ibis, 18G0, p. 44, sub Geranospvia 

 coTvlescetis.) — O. S.] 



