FALCONID/E — THE FALCONS. 



277 



This specimen may jaossibly indicate a mere individual variation, rather 

 than a progressive stage of plumage. 



A male (25,198, Washington, D. C, February) is as strongly barred be- 

 neath as described in the female ; thus it would appear that any differences 

 in plumage in the sexes are nothing more than individual discrepancies. 



The yellowish outer webs of the primaries constitute a feature which will 

 serve to distinguish the young of the Butco lineatus from that of every 

 other North American species. 



A series of twelve specimens from Florida, in the Museum of Compara- 

 tive Zoology, at Cambridge, shows that the birds of this species from that 

 peninsula are very much smaller than northern ones ; and though that of 

 the adults does not differ appreciably, the plumage of the young birds is 

 considerably darker than in northern specimens, and occasionally approaches 

 quite nearly to that of the young of var. elcgans, tlie markings on the lower 

 parts, including the tibiae, being often in the form of transverse spots. 



The extreme measurements of this series are as follows: Wing, 10.90- 

 12.75; tail, 7.70-8.50; culmen, .80 -.90; tarsus, 2.90-3.20; middle- toe, 

 1.25 - 1.45. Specimens, 12. 



Var. elegans, Cassin. 



RED-BELLIED HAWK. 



Buteo elegans, Cass. P. A. N. S. 1855, 281. — Ib. B. N. Am. 1858, 28, plate. — Hekrm. 

 P. R. Rep. II, 32. — Kennerly, P. R. Rep. Ill, 19. — Newb. VII, 75. — Coop. & 

 SucKL. XII, ii, 147. — Strickl. Orn. Syn. I, 38. — ? Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 325 

 (Texas). — Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 9 (Arizona). — Gray, Hand List, I, 7. — Cooper, 

 Birds Cal. 1870, 477. 



Sp. Char. Adult male (10,573, Ft. Tejon, California, "Oct. 22, 1857"; J. Xantus). 

 Head, neck, interscapulars, anterior scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, lining of the wing, 

 and entire lower parts, dark lateritious-rufous, inclining to chestnut on the shoulders. 

 The upper parts so colored have each feathers with a medial-ovate space of dull black, 

 giving a striped appearance ; the lesser wing-coverts, however, have each only a narrow 

 shaft-line of black, these growing larger as they approach the middle coverts. There is a 

 strong black suffusion over the cheeks, forming an obscure "mustache"'; orbit blackish, 

 throat streaked with the same. The dark lateritious-rufous of the jugulum and breast is 

 perfectly continuous and uniform, varied only by the obsoletely darker shafts of the 

 feathers; sides and flanks transversely barred with white; lining of the wing, and tibiae, 

 with very ill-defined bars of paler rufous; anal region and lower tail-coverts with broader 

 and more sharply defined bars of the same. Scapulars and middle wing-coverts brownish- 

 black, narrowly tipped, and irregularly spotted transversely, with pure white; secondaries 



