BUTEO. 69 



male, with the shield-like patch on the fore-neck of a dark ashy brown. Between this 

 phase of plumage and the not uncommon one of a sooty-brown colour with rufous 

 thighs, and thence to nearly black individuals, every kind of gradation is visible in a 

 series. Swainson's Buzzard takes the place in the New World of the Common Buzzard 

 {Buteo vulgaris) of the Old World, and appears to be of similar habits ; it is, however, 

 distinguished from the European bird and from most of its American congeners by 

 having only three, instead of four, of the outer primaries excised on the inner web. 



In the Eastern United States Buteo swainsoni is a rare bird, but in the Western and 

 Central States and on the Pacific side of N. America it breeds regularly and, in some 

 localities, in great numbers. In Manitoba and Western Canada it is also an abundant 

 summer resident, and its northern breeding-range extends to the Yukon River in 

 Alaska and the southern parts of the Mackenzie and Anderson rivers. Southward it is 

 found nesting in S.E. Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and even in Southern California ^. 



The only record we have at present of its breeding within our limits is from Mr. W. 

 Lloyd, who informed Capt. Bendire that he found it nesting on the prairies west of 

 Chihuahua in March. In September it was obtained at Fronteras in N.E. Sonora by 

 Mr. Robinette during the Lumholz Expedition, but it is chiefly on migration that 

 Swainson's Buzzard is met with in the Neotropical Region. It has been recorded by 

 Duges ^ from Guanajuato and Guadalajara and from the Valley of Mexico by Herrera. 

 We have received from Mr. Ferrari-Perez a specimen from San Baltazar in Puebla. 



We obtained a single example at Dueiias in Guatemala, but the bird is evidently 

 rare in this country as well as in Costa Rica, where it has been met with at San Jos6 

 by Carmiol ^^ and Cherrie ^ and at Tucurriqui by E. Arce. In South America it is 

 found in many districts during the northern winter, and arrives in Argentina and 

 Northern Patagonia in large flocks. In similar vast numbers the species returns to its 

 breeding-ground in North America, and Mr. F. Stephens says that he has seen 

 hundreds together. 



Captain Bendire remarks that it lives in such perfect harmony with its smaller 

 neighbours that some birds, such as Tyrannus verticalis and Icterus bullocM, build in 

 close vicinity to, or actually in, its nest ; this is rather roughly built, at heights varying 

 from three to sixty feet above the ground in the prairies, and is sometimes placed on 

 the ground. Its food consists chiefly of small rodents, as well as grasshoppers and 

 other insects. 



The eggs are oval, greenish white, with distinct or obsolete spots of brown or grey '^. 



10. Buteo latissimus. 



Falco latissimus, Wils. Am. Orn. vi. p. 93, t. 54. f. 1 (correction) '. 

 Astur latissimus, Jard. ed. Wils. Am. Orn. ii. p. 294 ^ 



Buteo latissimus, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. i. p. 193'; Boucard, P. Z. S. 1878, p. 44'; 

 Sumichrast, La Nat. v. p. 336'; Zeledon, An. Mus. Nac. Costa Rica, 1887, p. 136"; 



