396 Mr. J. H. Gurney on 



XXIX. — Note on Onycliotes grueberi, Ridgway. 

 1 By John Henry Gurney. 



(Plate XII.) 



In ' The Ibis^ for 1876, at p. 476, I referred, in some detail, 

 to the very curious Buteonine bird for which Mr. Ridgway, 

 a few years since, proposed the generic and specific names of 

 Onycliotes grueberi, the type specimen having been " sent to 

 the Smithsonian Institution by Mr. Griiber, who labelled it 

 as having been obtained in California " [vide Baird, Brewer, 

 and Ridgway's ' North American Birds,^ vol. iii. p. 254) . 



I am now enabled, by the courtesy of the authorities of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, and the good offices, in parti- 

 cular, of Mr. Ridgway, to illustrate my observations above 

 referred to by figures o£ the two only known specimens of this 

 remarkable and evidently very rare species, viz. the original 

 type specimen, and a second, subsequently added to the col- 

 lection of the Smithsonian Institution, the locality of which, 

 though not certainly known, is supposed to be, like that of 

 Mr. Griiber's example, California [vide Ridgway^s ' Studies 

 of American Falconidse,^ p. 135). 



This second specimen, so far as I am aware, has never 

 before been figured ; and no coloured figure of the type spe- 

 cimen has previously been published, though a very good 

 woodcut of it accompanies* the article on this species in the 

 work on the birds of North America to which I have already 

 referred. 



In the plate (Plate XII.) which accompanies the present 

 note the figure in the background represents the type speci- 

 men, and that in the front the second example acquired by 

 the Smithsonian Institution. 



It is needless for me here to repeat what I have said as to 

 both these specimens in ' The Ibis ' for 1876 ; neither is it 

 necessary for me to quote the very full and appropriate re- 

 marks from the pen of Mr. Ridgway contained in the two 

 works above referred to ; but I may briefly mention a few 

 points which have suggested themselves to my consideration 

 after examining the two specimens now figured. 



