IS86.J MEARN6 o?i Buds of Arizona. 7 I 



middle toe alone, 47. Claw of hallux, 27 ; inner claw, 25 ; middle claw, 24; 

 outer claw, 1S.5. 



Nestling (Jso. 4104, S]uv., June 19, 18S5, Fossil Creek, Arizona: E. 

 A. M.). Covered with dense woolly down, nearly white on head and breast, 

 passing into grayish posteriorly upon the head, throat, sides of breast, 

 tibiae, and back; the feathers are just emerging from the soft down, while 

 the remiges and scapulars are grown out enough to show the color-pattern, 

 and the quills of the rectrices are about 70 mm. (2^ inches) in length, only 

 the terminal one-fourth of their webs being expanded. The exposed feath- 

 ers bear terminal hairy filaments and tufts of down. The eyelids are 

 clothed with fine black hairs. The feathers discernible upon the throat 

 are black. The parotics and feathers of the back, crown, breast, and flanks 

 are brownish black, edged or tipped with ochraceous ; those upon the outer 

 side of the tibiiE are handsomely barred with black and ochraceous ; the 

 remiges, wing-coverts, and scapulars are brownish black, the wing-coverts, 

 scapulars, and some of the remiges being edged and tipped with rusty- 

 fulvous; the secondaries with lateral ovate spots of ashy-gray, tinged with 

 rusty, those upon the inner webs often wholly rusty. The terminal upper 

 tail-coverts are edged with pure white, as in the adult; and the white ter- 

 minal bar across the rectrices is likewise strongly marked, but tinged 

 slightly with ochraceous. Irides brownish gray; cere greenish yellow; 

 tarsi and toes yellow ; claws plumbeous black ; bill dusky plumbeous. In 

 this species the form is very heavy and powerful, the body weighing twice 

 as much as that of Buteo abbrcviatus ; this with the elongated bill and 

 tarsi, together with the broad white band across the middle of the tail, will 

 serve readily to distinguish it from that species. 



My specimens differ from those examined by Mr. Ridgway in having 

 but four outer primaries cut, while the fifth is shallowly emarginated — 

 less so than in Bicteo borealis — the sixth being perfect in outline. The 

 tail is nearly square, the central rectrices extending only from 9 to 11 

 mm. beyond the outer pair. 



Habits. — When hunting along a sluice of the Verde River, 

 beneath a dense growth of willows and cottonwoods, I first 

 discovered the Anthracite or Mexican Black Hawk, perched 

 among the thickest foliage of a low willow overhanging the 

 shallow water. The imperfect view obtained as it flew oft' 

 through the trees led me at first to suppose that it was an imma- 

 ture Golden Eagle, a species that I had several times encountered 

 thereabouts in similar situations. A snap shot proved unsucess- 

 ful, as was the case on several subsequent occasions, and, although 

 I frequently saw them along the river, it was long ere I suc- 

 ceeded in procuring a specimen. Always extremely shy, they 

 were usually found hidden in the foliage near the water in some 

 low situation whence, when surprised, thev generally managed 



