256 Notes on some Cuban Birds, 



Another young female from Mr. Forns's collection has the 

 sides of the head rufous brown with dark streaks, and the 

 throat pale rufous ; the markings of the under parts darker and 

 more clearly defined, the thighs more barred than in any of 

 the others. 



As is apparent from the synonymy of this species, ornitholo- 

 gists have been much in doubt as to its validity, some placing 

 it under A. fuscus and others doing so with a query: for this 

 reason I have thought b6st to give a description of each speci- 

 men sent to me. 



A comparison of the adults of the two species shows their dis- 

 tinctness very clearly. In form, fringilloides is smaller and 

 more slender than fuscus, but tlie clear rufous cheeks, nearly 

 white under plumage, especially that of the thighs, are strongly 

 in contrast with the rufous brown cheeks, streaked with dark 

 brown, and the strongly marked rufous under plumage and 

 thighs oi fuscus. 



All the specimens of the young under examination have the 

 markings on their under plumage transverse, on the abdomen 

 and thighs being waving and narrow, whereas in the young of 

 fuscus these markings are longitudinal, large in size, and more 

 extensively distributed, on the sides they are heart-shaped in 

 form, and guttate on the abdomen and thighs. 



Dr. Gundlach wrote as follows concerning this species, upon 

 being informed that it was distinct from A. fuscus: 



" I am happy to have discovered that the Cuban species is not fuscus, 

 hxii fringilloides. I had long doubted their identity, though in Cabanis's 

 Journal they are supposed to be the same bird. The specimen first sent 

 you was a male, shot in July, 1857, at Bayamo. I novsr send an adult 

 female, killed in June, 1855, at San Diego de los Baiios ; a young 

 male killed in Sept., 1857, at Bayamo, and a young female at Hanabana, 

 Oct., 1849. It hunts small birds to the size of blackbirds, and though 

 its wings are so short, it flics with the greatest rapidity. It undoubtedly 

 breeds on the island, for I once found a female in a pine wood which 

 attacked me on my arrival in the same manner as the Falco sparverius. 



