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XIX, On some New or little-known Species 0/ Accipitres, in the Collection of the Norwich 

 Museum. By Philip Lutley Sclater, M.A., F.L.S., Sfc. 



Read March 9, 1858. 



At the request of Mr. J. H. Gurney, I exhibit to the meeting some interesting birds 

 belonging to the fine series of specimens of the order Accipitres, which that gentleman 

 has collected for the Norwich Museum. Among them appear to be several new or 

 little-known species, concerning which I beg to offer the following remarks. 



1. UrUBITINGA SCHISTACEA. (PI. LVIII.) 



Asturina schistacea, Sund. Ofv. af K. Vet. Ak. Fcirh. 1849, p. 132. 



Falco ardesiacus, Licht. in Mus. Berol. 



Morphnus schistaceus, Sclater, P. Z. S. 1857, p. 261. 



c? adultus. Totus nigro-cinerascens, Cauda nigra, fascia media angusta margineque 

 apicali albis ; orbitis subnudis : rostri apice nigra, hujus basi cum pedibus flavis . 



Long, tota 160, alse 11 '0, caudae 70, rostri a rictu 14, tarsi 33. 



Sundevall has given an excellent description of this bird, which does not appear to 

 have been recognized by any other writer except Prince Bonaparte. By the latter 

 author it is alluded to in an article entitled " Revue ge'nerale de la classe des Oiseaux," 

 in the * Revue et Mag. de Zool.' for 1850, p. 474, and again in the ' Comptes Rendus " 

 for 1855, under the specific name ardesiacus, the synonym " Falco ardesiacus, Licht. in 

 Mus. Berol." being said to refer to it. 



Of the two examples of this species belonging to the Norwich Museum, one was 

 procured by Mr. H. W. Bates' on the Rio Javarri, a branch of the Upper Amazon; 

 and the other, I have no doubt, from the ticket with which it is labelled, is from the 

 interior of Bolivia. So we may conclude that the interior wood-region of Peru and 

 Bolivia is its natural habitat. 



There are at least three birds of this group which are in their adult plumage slaty- 

 black or blackish, with a white bar across the tail. The first of these and largest in 

 size is the Falco urubitinga of the older authors. Lesson in 1839 proposed to convert 

 the term Urubitinga into a genetic name, and it was so adopted by Lafresnaye in 1842, 

 before the creation of Cabanis' genus Hypomorphnus for the same type. See M. de 

 Lafresnaye's remarks on this subject in the 'Revue Zoologique ' for 1848, p. 240. 

 With regard to the specific name to be employed for this bird, we cannot useBrisson's 

 " brasiliensis," as is done in Strickland's ' Ornithological Synonyms,' because Brisson's' 



' See Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857, p. 261. 



■ See British Association's Report on Zooloeical Nomenclature, rule 2, p. 5. 



