11 



hawk (Buteo latussimus). These two 

 latter specimens were the first and 

 only ones I ever saw of these species 

 in melanistic plumage, and the broad- 

 winged hawk has been declared by 

 many authorities to be a most re- 

 markably rare plumage of that species. 

 It must be understood that melanistic 

 coloration does not include the regu- 

 lar normal plumages of such birds as 

 the blackbirds, crows, etc., but is 

 simply an off color among some 



their ranges overlapped, but it is a well 

 marked representative .of both types, 

 and strange to state that it and an- 

 other specimen taken near the same 

 locality the same year are the only in- 

 stances of this hybrid being taken in 

 Manitoba for some years. The gov- 

 ernment museum at Ottawa contains 

 a well-arranged series of this hybrid, 

 with types ranging over ithe entire con- 

 tinent. 

 The specimen in my collection is in 



Hybrid Mallard-Pintail. 



species with neither permanency or 

 regularity. 



HYBRIDS. 



I have also among the unusual re- 

 cords to note two hybrid records. On 

 April IB '97, I secured a beautiful spe- 

 cimen of the Flicker at Portage la 

 Prairie, which proved to be a well- 

 marked hybrid of the locally common 

 yellow shafted and the red shaf- 

 ted Flicker of the south and west. 

 This is not a new record, as C-auratus 

 and C- Chafer have interbred wherever 



male plumage and has the cheeK 

 patches and wing and tail shafts bright 

 red and a very small red patch on back 

 of head. While Hybrid Flickers have 

 been recorded previously, I have but 

 one record from any quarter besides 

 the one before us of a hybrid Mallard- 

 Pintail. In the early part of October, 

 1902, a young man secured this speci- 

 men, which is as typical of both species 

 as could possibly be, at the Clandeboye 

 marsh, and brought it to a local taxi- 

 dermist to be preserved. I subsequent- 

 ly heard of the bird and sent the own- 



