Notes on Buteo (Oiiycliotes) solitarius. 21 



^ IV. — Notes on Bateo (Onychotes) solitarius. 

 By the late John Henry Gubney^. 



Buteo solitarius of Peale was originally described under 

 that name in the first edition of the Zoology of the United- 

 States Exploring Expedition (Birds, p. 62), published in 

 1848, from a specimen obtained near Karakakoa Bay, in the 

 island of Hawaii, by the Rev. Mr. Forbes, and sent by him 

 to Dr. J. K. Townshend, who presented it to the collection 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



In the second edition of the above-named work, edited by 

 the late Mr. Cassin, and published in 1858, this specimen 

 was described at p. 97, and figured on pi. 4 of the accom- 

 panying atlas. In the letterpress of that article the specimen 

 is stated to be " adult,^^ but the accompanying plate shows 

 it to be in the paler stage of plumage, which appears to 

 me to be indicative of immaturity. 



Mr. Cassin inserted this species in his work under the 

 title of " Pandion solitarius/' but in 1874 it was again (and 

 certifcinly more correctly) referred to the genus Buteo in 

 Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway's ' History of North- 

 American Land-Birds,' vol. iii. p. 255 ; and Mr. Ridgway's 

 views as to the Buteonine character of the species were 

 quoted by me in 'The Ibis/ 1876, p. 231. The preceding 

 page of the same volume of the ' North- American Land- 

 Birds ' contained a description and woodcut of a melanistic 

 example of the same bird under the name of '' Onychotes 

 gruberi/* by which it had previously been described by 

 Mr. Ridgway in the ' Proceedings '' of the Philadelphia 

 Academy of Sciences for December 1870, p. 149. 



It was only at a later period that, tbi'ough the acute 

 discrimination of Mr. Ridgway, the identity of Onychotes 

 gruberi with Buteo solitarius was demonstrated, the specimen 

 originally described under the former name having been sent 

 to the Smithsonian Institution from San Francisco, and 

 having been supposed (as it is now thought, erroneously) to 

 have been obtained in California. 



* [Found amongst Mr, Guruey's papers, aud communicated by his bod, 

 Mr. J. H. Guruey.— Ed.] 



