120 

 mSUS YENTEALIS. 



JccipUer erijthrocnemms ? Scl. P. Z. S. 1855, 134. — Orton, Am. STat. 1871, 624 (Quito 



Valley). 

 Accipiter ventmlis Scl. P. Z. S. 1866, 303.— Scl. & Salv. Ex. Orn. ii, 1867, 25, pi. xiii ; 



ib. si, 170 ; P. Z. S. 1870, 782, 788 (Veuezuela) ; Nom. Neotr. 1873, 120.— Gray, 



Hand List, i, 1869, 32.— Sharpe. Cat. Ace. B. M. 1874, 149. 

 ? Accipiter niorc-plmnibeus, Lawr. Ann. N. Y. Lye. 1869, 270 (Quito Valley, Ecuarlor= 



melanism f), 



Hal). — Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. 



Wing, 6.30^8.70; tail, 5.40-7.25; culmen, 0.35-0.55; tarsus, 1.65- 

 2.20 ; middle toe, 1.10-1.50. Fourth and fifth quills longest ; first 

 shortest; outer five with inner webs sinuated. Tail even, or very 

 slightly rounded. Tibiiie uniform deep rufous. Tail dull black, crossed 

 by four narrow continuous bands of slate-gray or brownish-gray, and 

 narrowly tipped with grayish or white. Adult. — Above, uniform dark 

 plumbeous except the tail, the scapulars and upper tail-coverts with 

 concealed white spots. Beneath, chiefly rufous, sometimes entirely so, 

 but usually whitish in the crissum and throat, and often broken along 

 the middle line by an indistinct transverse white spotting. Young. — 

 Above, dark sepia, the feathers with rusty terminal borders. Lower 

 parts (except tibia?.) white, marked with large, rather longitudinal, sag- 

 ittate spots of umber. 



Sexes alike in color, but dififering in size as follows : — 



Males:— \N\\\g, 6.60-6.95; tail, 5.70-6.20 ; culmen, 0.40-0.45; tarsus, 

 1.90-2.10 ; middle toe, 1.25-1.30. (Six specimens.) 



Females:— \Nmg, 7.75-8.00; tail, 6.80-7.00; culmen, 0.50-0.55; tar- 

 sus, 2.15-2.20; middle toe, 1.40-1.50. (Four specimens.) 



There is greater variation in the plumage of this species than in any 

 of its allies, and, contrary to the usual rule, the adults vary more than 

 the young. The darkest example of the latter we have seen is an adult 

 male from Ecuador in Mr. Salvin's collection. In this specimen, every 

 portion of the lower parts is rufous, even the throat, crissum, and lining 

 of the wing being of this color, while the tibiae and abdomen are so 

 dark and purplish as to border on a chestnut shade. The flanks show 

 narrow, transverse, indistinctly-defined bars of white. An adult male 

 from the interior of isew Granada is quite a contrast to this, and rep- 

 resents the light extreme. In this example, the breast is nearly uniform 

 light gray and rufous, the former predominating, while the sides, 

 abdomen, and flanks are barred with white, gray, and rufous, in broad, 

 ragged, not well-defined bars, of which the white ones average the 

 widest, while the rufous and gray are mixed in nearly equal proportion. 

 The crissum and throat are pure white, the latter with dusky shaft- 

 streaks; the lateral feathers of the former with a faint mottling of 

 grayish. An adult male from Venezuela (Merida) has the flanks 

 uniform deep rufous, like the tibi?e ; the breast, belly, and sides being 

 light grayish-fulvous, becoming lighter toward thejugulum ; the feathers 

 marked with darker grayish bars concealed beneath the surface. Other 

 si)ecimens are variously intermediate between these, there being usually 

 more or less of an indistinct barring of white and grayish along the 

 median line of the abdomen and breast. The young birds vary con- 

 siderably also, especially in the markings of the lower parts. In the 

 males, these are usually longitudinal on the breast; but in the two 

 females before us, each of these markings spreads anteriorly, so as to 

 form a spot of a widely sagittate form. 



Besides the variations noted above, the N. nigroplumheus (Lawrence) 

 may represent a melanism of the adult j)lumage in this species, since. 



