BUTEO SWAINSONI. 59 



tributaries, and is never found far removed from water. It perches on 

 the summit of a tree, and sits there motionless for hours at a time, and 

 at intervals utters singularly long loud cries, which become more 

 frequent and piercing when the bird is disturbed, as by the approach 

 of a person. Its flight is rapid and irregular, the short blunt wings 

 beating unceasingly, while the bird pours out a succession of loud 

 vehement broken screams. 



Mr. Barrows observed it on the Lower Uruguay, and writes : " It 

 feeds largely if not exclusively on fish, nearly every specimen having 

 their remains (and nothing else) in their stomachs." It would be very 

 interesting to learn how it captures its prey. 



295. BUTEO SWAINSONI, Bp. 



(SWAINSON'S BUZZARD.) 



[PLATE XVL] 



Buteo swainsoni, ScL et Salv. Nomencl. p. 1 18 ; Withington, Ibis, 1888, p. 469 

 (Lonias de Zamora) ; Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. N. A. B. iii. p. 263. Buteo 

 obsoletus, Sharpe, Cat. B. i. p. 184. Buteo albicaudatus, ScL et Salv. 

 P. Z. S. 1869, p. 634 (Buenos Ayres). 



Description. Above blackish brown ; scapulars slightly variegated with 

 rufous ; upper tail-coverts white, tinged with rufous ; tail dark greyish brown, 

 crossed by several ill-defined blackish bars : beneath white or pale ochraceous ; 

 a broad band covering the whole breast reddish brown ; bill black ; feet yellow ; 

 claws black : whole length 20'0 inches, wing 15*0, tail 8*5. Female similar, but 

 larger. 



ilab. North and South America. 



The figure given herewith (Plate XVI.) represents a fine adult female 

 specimen of this Buzzard, obtained by Mr. Frank Withingtou at 

 Lomas de Zamora, on the 4th of February, 1886, and now in Sclater's 

 collection. 



Swainson's Buzzard is a North- American species, which has only 

 recently been ascertained to occur in the southern part of the Western 

 Hemisphere. Full details concerning it are given in the standard 

 work on " North-American Land-birds," to which we have referred 

 above. Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Kidgway divide the species into two 

 subspecies, (< swainsoni 33 and ' ' oxypterus" to the latter of which they 

 refer the southern specimens, but they acknowledge that it is " difficult 

 to express points of absolute difference " between these subspecies. 



It appears from what these authorities say (/. c. p. 268) that a young 

 specimen procured by Hudson at Conchitas in 1860, and referred by 

 Messrs. Salvin and Sclater with doubt to B. albicaudatus, really belongs 



