1 886. 



Mearns 0)t Birds of Arizofia. 6q 



evenly blotched with very pale yellowish brown and lavender. 

 Both contained lar<^e embryos and were emptied of their contents 

 with difficulty. Mr. Brewster describes eggs taken from a nest 

 built in a cypress tree on the banks of Guadaloupe River, in 

 Comal County, Texas. They are "marked with blotches of red- 

 dish brown upon a dull white ground." These blotches in one 

 specimen occm- most thickly about the larger end, where they 

 tend to form a nearly confluent ring, while in the other specimen 

 the markings are most numerous about the smaller extremity. 

 He observes that "although the parent birds belonging to this 

 nest successfully eluded all attempts to capture, their identity can 

 scarcely be doubted." The specimens measured (reducing to 

 millimeters) 53-09 X 38. 86 mm. Mr. F. Stephens also found this 

 bird breeding on the Gila River in New Mexico, about twenty 

 miles from the Arizona line, and obtained one of the parents. 

 The nest was placed in a very large Cottonwood tree, in the 

 mouth of a canon, and contained one c^^. having a large embryo 

 which could not be extracted. The nest was quite bulky, com- 

 posed of twigs, lined with strips of the inner bark of the cotton- 

 wood. The eg^ was marked with large reddish brown blotches, 

 irregidarly distributed on a dirty white ground. 



From tiie above description it will be observed that the variation 

 in the eggs of this species, both in size and color-markings, is 

 considerable, but possibly not greater than in other species of the 

 g-enus. 



Urubitinga anthracina {Lic/it.) Lafr. Mexican 

 Black Hawk. 



•"■Falco aufhracinus Light." Nitzsch, Pterylographie, 1840, p. 83. 



Urubitinga anthracina Lafr. Rev. Zool. 1848, p. 241. — Hensh. Zool. 

 Expl. W. 100 Merid. 1875, pp. 420, 141 (introductory notes). — Ridgw. 

 Studies Am. Falconidse-c^Bull. U. S. Geo!, and Geogr. Surv. Terr. 

 April I. 1876, p. 170.— Bkewst. Bull. N. O. C. VIII, No. i, 1883, p. 30. 



Description. — Adult in breeding dress (No. 4x03, $ ad., June 19, 1885, 

 Fossil Creek, Arizona. E. A. M. ; parent of nestling described below). 

 General color brownish-black, slightly glossed with metallic reflections 

 of green, gold, and purple, with a glaucous cast, most pronounced upon 

 the interscapular region and nape ; lores, ophthalmic region, and a trian- 

 gular patch extending backward from the angle of the mouth white, but 



