117 



tance, it having the third quill the longest on the right side, and the 

 third and fourth equal and longest on the left, the second equal to 

 the fifth on the right, and much shorter on the left, first nearly 

 equal to the seventh on the right and considerably shorter on the 

 left. 



Buteo Bairdii, No. 10,761. Head and hind-neck pale ferruginous, 

 each feather with a central spot of dark brown, inversely acumi- 

 nated on the head and oval on the hind-neck, with the base of all 

 white ; rest of upper parts dark brown, the feathers broadly margined 

 with rufous, principally on the scapulars and tertiaries ; tail and wings 

 like No. 6,871. Beneath, white washed with pale-ferruginous; a few 

 dark stripes in the centre of the throat, and all the feathers of the neck, 

 breast, and upper part of abdomen with a central terminal spot of dark 

 brown, which, on each side of the shoulders, is so large as to form a dark 

 blackish-brown patch ; the spots on the sides are spade-like in form, 

 becoming more linear in the centre of the breast, sagittate on the 

 lower part, and cutting off the tips of the feathers squarely on the 

 upper part of the breast ; lower part of abdomen almost unspotted, 

 crissum entu-ely so ; a few faint sagittate-like bars on the upper part 

 of tibiae. A specimen in the collection of the Academy, the only one 

 I have seen presenting the least appearance of adult plumage, differs 

 from the above, in the brown being of a deeper shade and glossed 

 with purple, and in having a distinct patch running down from the 

 angle of the mouth, and with the one above described, forming a 

 nearly uninterrupted band across the breast ; all the spots are larger, 

 and on the sides the feathers, instead of being white spotted with 

 brown, are brown with oval spots of white on both webs ; tibiae brown, 

 barred with rusty ; crissum broadly barred. 



Buteo oxypterus. Above dark brown ; margin of scapulars, more or 

 less rufous, and with the feathers on the sides of the head and fore- 

 head so broadly margined with pale rufous, as to appear properly of 

 that color, with a narrow stripe of brown down the centre of each 

 feather, the spots becoming larger on the vertex, and still more so on 

 the occiput and hind-neck. Below, pale rusty-white, spotted as in 

 Balrdii ; thighs barred with brown ; crissum very slightly barred. 



If Harlani, insignatus, Bairdii, Swainsonii, and oxypterus, are still 

 to be retained as species, one more must be added, based on the fer- 

 ruginous variety of Harlani, collected by Captain Stimpson ; insigna- 

 tus must be separated into two species, one the brown, and the other 

 the ferruginous-colored variety ; and Swainsonii into three, two of 

 which are characterized, like insignatus, by the color of the breast, 

 and a third, which, according to my idea, is the connecting link be- 

 tween this species and insignatus, distinguished by the brown spots 

 and bars on the abdomen ; this last plumage has as adult an appear- 

 ance as any of the others, and is strictly parallel to the Steilacoom 

 varietv of montanus. 



