NO. 2 AVIFAUNA OF PLEISTOCENE IN FLORIDA WETMORE 29 



The fcnuir was in a fragile condition and was received in several 

 pieces. These have l)een so skillfnlly joined I)y N. 11. Ross that they 

 ilinstrate well the form of the bone. 



The identification of this form from Florida is one of the most 

 nnexpected results of this study of the Pleistocene from Florida and 

 indicates a wide range in Pleistocene times for this peculiar liird. 



Family ACCIPITRIDAE 

 BUTEO JAMAICENSIS (Gmelin) 



Red-tailed hawk 



Falco jantaiccusis (imelin. Syst. Nat., vol. i, pt. i, 1788, p. 266. 



The red-tailed hawk is rei)resented in the W. W. Holmes collection 

 from the Seminole Field by the distal end of a left metatarsus, the 

 lower ends of two left tibio-tarsi, and a left coracoid. J. E. Moore 

 secured part of an ulna near Venice. Gidley collected the lower pfir- 

 tion of a left humerus in the lower part of the Number Two bed on 

 the golf links at Melbourne. The species occurs today in Florida, and 

 has l)een recorded previously as fossil in the Pleistocene of California. 



The red-tailed hawk has been known for many years as Butco 

 borcalis. the original reference being Falco borcalis Gmelin, Syst. 

 Nat., vol. I, pt. I, 1788, p. 266, where it is species No. 75. The pre- 

 ceding species, No. 74, Falco jainaicensis on the same page is based 

 on the cream-colored buzzard of Latham ' described from a specimen 

 from Jamaica, evidently an immature of the red-tailed hawk. As the 

 name jainaicensis comes first on the page in question in Gmclin's 

 work it will replace the familiar borcalis as the specific name for 

 this hawk. 



BUTEO LINEATUS (Gmelin) 



Red-shouldered hawk * 



I-alco lincatiis Gmelin, Syst. Nat., vol. i, pt. i, 1788, p. 268. 



The red-shouldered hawk was apparently as common in Pleistocene 

 times as today, for it is represented by a number of fragmentary 

 bones. Holmes obtained a left humerus lacking the head and the 

 distal ends of two tibio-tarsi from the Seminole area. J. E. Moore 

 secured part of a metatarsus near Venice. In excavations on the golf 

 links at Melbourne Gidley secured a nearly complete left metatarsus 

 in 1926, a fragment of another in 1928, and a broken left femur 

 in 1930. The red-shouldered hawk is represented in modern Florida 

 by a resident form Butco lincafus alloii that licsides differing in color 



^ Gen. Syn. Birds, vol. i, pt. i, 1781, p. 49- 



