Vol. XIX 

 1902 



I EcKSTOR.M, Description of the Adult Black Merlin. 3 5 



narrower tail-bars. Richardsoni in all plumages has wings that 

 are heavily spotted when closed and a tail that is clearly striped 

 with six or seven definite white stripes. Coliimbarii/s, in the 

 specimens at hand, shows no spots on the outside of the wing 

 when closed and but four to five narrow tail-bars, the terminal 

 black bar (next the white tip) being of extra width. In suckleyi 

 these characters are emphasized to a degree, the bird being prac- 

 tically uni-colored above. I speak of these points chiefly to 

 remark the fact that the Black Merlin is, in the adult plumage an 

 intensification of the darker phases of the Pigeon Hawk, but also 

 to call attention to a specimen which Capt. Bendire took at Fort 

 Walla Walla, Wash., and which Mr. Wm. Brewster commented 

 upon in the Nuttall Ornithological Bulletin for Oct., 1882, p. 230. 

 This specimen which presented "a puzzling combination of char- 

 acters," showed "almost orange chestnut on the breast and 

 tibijE " and on the back " a nearly pure plumbeous " while " the 

 outer web of all the primaries, excepting the first two, [were] con- 

 spicuously marked with rounded spots of pale ochraceous." At 

 this time, Mr. Brewster says, *'the adult of suckleyi is, unknown, 

 but we should expect to find it like the young, with sparse, incon- 

 spicuous spotting on the lining of the wings." Even at so late a 

 date as this it may not be untimely to note that Mr. Brewster was 

 entirely correct in his surmise about the adult Black Merlin, and 

 to suggest that the specimen in question seems to combine the 

 characters of the adults of both suckleyi and richardsoni and 

 may perhaps, if not already accounted for, be explained as one 

 of those not unknown hybrids that give so much difficulty in 

 classifying hawks. 



