FALCONID^ — THE FALCONS. 283 



Sp. Char. Adtdt. Upper parts rich blackish-brown, approaching black on the back ; 

 scapulars and middle wing-coverts edged and barred beneath the surface with dull white, 

 and tinged along edges with ochraceous. Wings generally of a paler shade than the 

 back ; secondaries fading into nearly white at tips, and, with the greater coverts, obscurely 

 barred with darker; primaries nearly black, tips edged with pale brown, this passing into 

 whitish. Eump uniform blackish-brown, feathers obscurely bordered with rusty. Upper 

 tail-coverts ochraceous-white, nearly pure terminally, and with about two distinct 

 transverse bars of deep rufous. Tail rich uniform lateritious-rufous, passing narrowly 

 into white at the tip, and about an inch (or less) from the end crossed by a narrow band 

 of black. Head and neck with the feathers medially blackish-brown, their edges rusty- 

 rufous, causing a streaked appearance ; the rufous prevailing on the sides of the occiput, 

 the ear-coverts, and neck. The blackish almost uniform on the forehead and on the 

 cheeks, over which it forms a broad "mustache"; lores and sides of frontlet whitish. 

 Throat white, with broad stripes of pure slaty-brown ; lower parts in general ochraceous- 

 white ; tibife and lower tail-coverts immaculate ; across the abdomen and flanks (imme- 

 diately in front of the tibife) is a broad inteiTupted belt of longitudinal black blotches, 

 those on the abdomen tear-shaped, on the flanks larger and more irregular, throwing off 

 bars toward the edge of the feathers; whole pectoral area variegated only with a few 

 shaft-streaks of black (these growing broader laterally), and sometimes washed with 

 rusty. Lining of the wing ochraceous-white, with sparse diamond-shaped spots of pale 

 rufous, and shaft-streaks of darker ; under surface of primaries white anterior to their 

 emargination, beyond which they gradually deepen into black ; the innermost ones are 

 finely mottled with slaty, and with imperfect transverse bars of the same. 



MaJe. Wing, 13..50- 16.50 ; tail, 8.50-10.00; culmen, :95-1.08; tarsus, 1.40-3.20; 

 middle toe, 1.60 - 1.70. Weight, 2i - 3 lbs. 



Female. Wing, 15.25-17.75; tail, 9.50-10.50; culmen, 1.00-1.15; tarsus, 3.15-3.40; 

 middle toe, 1.70 - 1.80. Weight, 3-4 lbs. 



Young (28,154, Philadelphia; J. Krider). Above similar to the adult, but lacking 

 entirely any rufous tinge, the scapulars and wing-coverts more variegated with whitish. 

 Tail light grayish-brown (very much lighter than the rump), tinged, especially basally, 

 with rufous, narrowly tipped with white, and crossed with nine or ten narrow, curved 

 bands of black ; upper tail-coverts white, with broad bars of black. Head as in the 

 adult, but the rufous wanting, leaving the streaks black and white; forehead more broadly 

 white ; chin and throat wholly white, the latter with a collar of dusky streaks across the 

 lower part ; whole pectoral region entirely immaculate, pure white ; abdominal band as 

 in the adult ; tibiae somewhat tinged with ochraceous, unvariegated. 



Hab. Eastern North America ; not in West Indies, nor west of the Missouri. 



Localities: (?) Bahamas (Bryant, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1867, 64). 



LIST OF SPECIMENS EXAMINED. 



National Museum, 9; Philadelphia Academy, 13; Boston Society, 8; Museum, Cam- 

 bridge, 15 ; Cab. G. N. Lawrence, 3 ; Coll. K. Ridgway, 2. Total, 50. 



The true Buteo horealis, as restricted, may always be distinguished from 

 the var. calurus, its western representative, by its having the posterior lower 

 parts (tibiae and lower tail-coverts) entirely free from transverse bars, and 

 by lacking indications of transverse bars on the tail, anterior to the con- 

 spicuous subterminal one. It differs fjom the var. costariceiisis, in having 

 the head and neck conspicuously striped with rufous, and the throat thickly 

 striped with black, almost obliterating the white ; in the cons]iicuous abddin- 



