Ridgwav on a Tropical American Hawk. 211 



Adult J {Palatka. Florida, February I. 1S81 ; G. A. Boardman) : Upper 

 surface continuous and nearly uniform blackish-brown, darkest and most 

 uniform on the head, which, with the exception of the anterior half of 

 the lores, the anterior malar region, chin, and throat, is solid sooty black, 

 the occipital feathers snow-white beneath the surface; back with a strong 

 chalky or glaucous cast in certain lights, the scapulars and wings dull 

 grayish-brown with the feathers darker centrally; sides of the rump 

 strongly tinged with rufous. Tail grayish-brown, very narrowly tipped 

 with dull white, and crossed near the end by an indistinct band of dusky, 

 and showing, w-hen wideh' spread, indications of about four other narrow 

 broken bands, in the form of irregular, but mostly somewhat V-shaped, 

 bars of black along the middle portion of the feathers. Lateral upper 

 tail-coverts lighter brownish-gray, with broad but rather indistinct bars or 

 spots of dusky. A spot on each side of the base of the bill, covering the 

 anterior half of the loral and malar regions, 'chin, throat, middle of the 

 jugulum. breast, and remaining lower parts, immaculate pure white, the 

 tibia;, especially on their inner side, washed with pale ochraceous or 

 light buff. Sides of the jugulum rufous-brown, the feathers with dusky 

 shaft-streaks; sides of the breast and anterior portion of the sides marked 

 with a few dusky shaft-streaks, the more posterior ones of which expand 

 terminally into a broad streak of dusky brown. Lining of the wing and 

 axillars immaculate pure white, the under primary-coverts, however, with 

 a large patch of dusky near the end. Bill black, bluish basally; cere, 

 legs, and feet, yellow: iris, brown. Wing, 12.00; tail, 7.00; culmen, .75; 

 tarsus, j. 10; middle toe, 1.35. 



Adult $ (?) : Similar to the $ , but without rufous tinge on sides of 

 breast, which are grayish-brown, similar to, but lighter than, the wing- 

 coverts. Size larger (wing about 12.70). 



Young: " Very similar to the adult, but browner above, the feathers 

 being margined with fulvous ; the crown and sides of face streaked with 

 pale ochre; the under surface, especially the under wing-coverts, washed 

 with ochre."' (Skarfic, I.e.) 



An adult specimen (sex not indicated) from Mirador, Eastern 

 Mexico (No. 23,887, U. S. Nat. Mus.), is much like the Florida 

 example described above, but has the white loral spaces larger 

 and connected across the anterior part of the forehead, the sides 

 of the breast almost entirely rufous (there being little if any of 

 the grayish-brown) and the dusky shaft-streaks more distinct. 

 The upper portion of the flanks, adjoining the sides of the rump, 

 are also more distinctly and more extensively rufous. The 3rd 

 quill, instead of the 4th, is longest, the wing-formula being 

 3, 4, 5-2, 6-7-8, 1. Wing, 11.25; tail, 7.20; culmen. .75; 

 tarsus, 2.05; middle toe, 1.40. 



