2 QUARTERLY BUELLTIN. 



from -//. chrysoptera. The first notice of this specimen appeared 

 in the "American Sportsman," vol.5, p. 33. To speculate on the 

 probable home or range of a bird so little known would he at 

 the present time idle. Whether it must be placed in the same 

 category with the unique Euspiza Townsendi, liegulus Cuvieri, 

 etc., or like Dendroeca Kirklandi, will turn up occasionally in 

 the future at different points, or still again as in the case of Cen- 

 tronyx Bairdii, will be found in large numbers, time alone 

 can decide. Every fixed species of bird is probably common 

 somewhere. There is always some well stocked reservoir hew- 

 ever restricted in area, from which the choicest rarities emanate, 

 but to locate this avian well-spring is not seldom an undertak- 

 ing of difficulty. 



As previously remarked the differences in coloration in the 

 present bird from any of its allies are so great, and of such a 

 nature, as to render any theory of accidental variation exceed- 

 ingly unlikely, while hybrids — at least among the smaller spe- 

 cies of undomesticated birds — are of such shadowy and proble- 

 matical existence that their probable bearing upon the present 

 case is hardly worthy of consideration. 



It is not a little remarkable that another species* in the same 

 genus as this, and one too apparently quite as strongly charac- 

 terized, should have been brought to light at so nearly the same 

 time. 



THE COMMON BUZZARD HAWK (BUTEO VULGARIS) OF 

 EUROPE IN NORTH AMERICA. 



BY C. J. MAYNARD. 



Late in the autumn of 1873 I received a box of bird skins 

 from Mr. J. D. Allen, of Paw Paw, Mich. They consisted 

 mainly of Hawks, among which \%as a specimen that instantly 

 attracted my attention, for it was quite peculiar in its markings. 

 The skin was evidently that of a Buteo, but I could not make it 

 ao-ree with any of the plumages of the species which had come 

 under my observation. This was the result of a hasty examin- 

 ation, for being extremely busy at the time I laid it one side for 

 further comparison. 



Later study upon it proved as nearly as possible, without 



* Helminthophaga Laiorencii, Herrick. Pioc. Acad. Natural Science, 

 Phila., 1874, pi. 15, p. 220. 



