36 



PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. [1885. 



Habitat. — Atlantic slope of tropical America, from Brazil to Vera 

 Cruz, Mexico (perhaps to soiitberu Texas); west through Amazon Val- 

 ley to eastern Peru. 



The type of C. hurrovianus and the typical example of G. urubitinga 

 compare in measurements as follows: 



Type of C. burrovianufi. 

 Typical "O. urubitinga." 



ON ONYCHOTBS GRUBERI. 

 By ROBERT RIDOlkVAY. 



With (he single exception of Buteo cooperi, Cass., no alleged North 

 American hawk has been so much a puzzle to ornithologists as the spe- 

 cies described under the above name. The type specimen was received 

 by the Smithsonian Institution in 186G from F. Gruber, a San Francisco 

 taxidermist, and was labeled '■'• Buteo fuUginosus, California." This spec- 

 imen was described as a new genus and species, in the " Proceedings "of 

 the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences for December, 1870 (p. 149) and 

 again in History of North American Birds, vol. iii, p. 254; in the latter 

 case the description being accompanied by a full-length woodcut. In 

 November, 1872, there was removed from the Land office Department 

 of the Patent Office building, in Washington, to the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, a collection of forty-five mounted birds, for the most part North 

 American species, and, with one or two exceptions, unlabeled. There 

 were altogether 38 species, of which 21) were common North American 

 birds, 8 well-known tropical American species, and the remaining one 

 a hawk, which was subsequently identified as Onycliotes gruberi in the 

 light phase of plumage. This specimen was described in Bod and Gun 

 (newspaper. West Meriden, Conn.), vol. vi, No. 5, Maj* 1 , 1875, p. 65. In 

 the " Bulletin " of the United States Geological and Geographical Sur- 

 vey of the Territories, vol. ii, No. 2, April 1, 1876, pp. 134, 135, both 

 specimens were redescribed. 



Having a suspicion that Onycliotes gruberi might i)ossibly be identifi- 

 able with some Old World species, the two specimens were, with the 

 consent of the Director of the National Museum, sent to Mr. J. H. Gur- 

 ney for examination, and while in his hands were inspected by other 

 leading Eugli^h ornithologists, none of whom could identify them with 

 any other known species. Mr. Gurney published some observations on 

 these specimens in the Ibis for July, 1881, pp. 396-398, illustrated by 

 a colored plate (PI. XII) showing both examples. 



After having thus passed the test of examination by the best author- 

 ities, there seemed no further reason to doubt the validity ol the species, 



