FAICONID^ — DIUKNAL RAPTCWRES. 471 



lining of the wing and upper tail-coverts, continuous, unvariegated black. Under sur- 

 face of the primaries ashy white, more slaty terminally; ends with distinct, and other 

 portions with indistinct, mottled bars of dusky. Tail ashy brown on outer webs, white 

 on inner; both with a confused, rather longitudinal mottling of blackish; terminally, 

 there is a broad, nearly continuous subterminal band indicated by blotches, these mixed 

 very slightly with a rufous tinge. Primaries injured by shot, therefore proportions of 

 the quills cannot be determined. Wing,15.75; taJl,9.10; culmen, 1.00; tarsus 2.9o; middle 

 toe,1.60: outer.1.15; inner.l.lo. 



Toung male (Gainesville, Texas, Nov. 16. 1876: G. H. Bagsdale*). Prevailing color 

 dark sooty brown, nearly black, the entire plum;ig6 white beneath the surface, showing 

 wherever the feathers are dis^irranged. Throat white, with a few streaks of sooty brown ; 

 lores whitish. Scapulars and larger wing-coverts with large concealed bars and spots of 

 white ; feathers of the rump, upper tail-coverts, flanks, tibias and crissum with indistinct 

 roundish spots of pale fulvous, pale grayish brown and dirty white, on the edges of the 

 feathers, the continuity of the dusky ground-color being thus broken. Remiges gniy- 

 ish brown, with distinct bands of sooty black, with a purphsh reflection, these bands 

 averaging about .50 of an inch in width, .60-. 75 apart; on the secondaries they are three 

 in number, exclusive of those concealed by the greater coverts and the very indistinct 

 terminal one; rectrices similar to the remiges, but the black bars nearly equal in width 

 to the interspaces (both averaging about .45 of an inch in width), and seven in number on 

 the intermediate (not counting the nearly obsolete basal one); on the inner webs of the 

 intermediiB these bars are less regular, those toward the end of the feathers being 

 decidedly zigzag and oblique: inner webs mottled with grayish next the shaft, white 

 toward the edge, the bars n.arrower and more conspicuous than on the outer webs. 

 Lining of the wing and axillars blackish dusky, irregularly spotted with white and pale 

 fulvous; inner webs of primaries white anterior to their emarginations, this white re- 

 lieved, however, by an irregular clouding and sprinkling of grayish. 



fourth quill longer t; third and fifth, ,35 of an inch shorter, and equal; seeond,1.60; 

 shorter than the fourth, and exceeding the sixth in length; first, 4. 25 shorter than the 

 fourth, and inttrmediate between the eighth and ninth. 



Wing, 16.20; tail, 10.00; culmen, .98; tarsus, 3.50; middle toe, 1.70; outer toe decidedly 

 longer than the inner 



The specimen last described calls to mind at first sight the young 

 of Buteo ahbreviatus, on account of the numerous white spots which 

 show wherever the feathers are disarranged. It is, however, more 

 spotted below, and the general cast of the plumage is decidedly 

 more brownish ; while the proportions are, of course, entirely differ- 

 ent. From melanistic young specimens of B. borealis, it differs in 

 the conspicuous white spotting alluded to, in the decidedly greater 

 width and distinctness of the black band of the remiges and rec- 

 trices, as well as the more hoary cast of the interspaces between 

 the latter — especially on the intermedia. 



"This species, though smaller than the Eed-tail, to which he re- 

 garded it as allied, Audubon thought greatly superior to it in fl ght 

 and daring. Its flight is described as rapid, greatly protracted, 

 and so powerful as to enable it to seize the prey with apparent 

 ease, or effect its escape from its stronger antagonist, the Eed-tail, 



• This specimen was. at last accounts, in the eoUection of Dr. K. M. W. Gibbs, of Kala- 

 mazoo, Mich. (Cf. The Naturalist ai d Fancier. Grand Rapids. Mich., Vol. I.. No. 8. 

 August, 1877.) 



