BIRDS — BUTEONINAE — BUTEO BOKEALIS. 25 



adult specimen agrees sufficiently well with Mr. Audubon's description, though a measurement 

 given in the latter — "tarsus If inches" — is very probably a misprint, though copied into his 

 octavo edition. A Buteo, with the tarsus of this length, would be about the shortest legged 

 species known, and rather deviating from the requirements of the genus. In the present bird 

 the tarsus measures about three inches. 



The bird now before us being much like the figure and description given by Mr. Audubon as 

 pointed out by Mr. Lawrence, we have no scruple in assenting to such designation as applied 

 to it. The proper identification of the species though can be made only from the original 

 specimen in the British Museum. To Mr. Lawrence we are also indebted for the recognition of 

 the young bird of this species, described above, in the collection of the expeditions. 



The specimens in the collection of Captain Pope's party were obtained by Dr. Henry in New . 

 Mexico, as above stated. Those described by Mr. Lawrence were from California. 



Sub-Genus Poeeiloptemis. 

 BUTEO BOKEALIS, Gmelin. 



The Red-tailed Hawk. 



Falco bonalis, Leverianus, and jamaieensis, Gm. Syst. Kat. I, 266, (X788.) 



Falco aquilinus, BAKTRirM, Trar. p. 290, (1791.) 



Buteo ftrrugineicaudus, Vieill. Ois. d'Am. Sept. I, 32, (1807.) 



Jiccipiter ruficaudus, Vieill. Ois. d'Am. Sept. I, 43, (1807.) 



Buteo fulvus and americanus, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. IV, 472, 477, (1816.) 



PiGnREs.— Vieill. Ois. d'Am. Sept. I, pi. 6, 14 ; Wilson Am. Orn. VI, pi. 52, figs. 1, 2 ; Audubon B. of Am., pi. 51, Oct. 

 ed. 1, pi. 7 ; Gosse B. of Jamaica, pi. 2 ; Lembeye B. of Cuba, pi. 1. 



Mult. — Tall bright rufous, narrowly tipped with white and having a subterminal band of black. Entire upper parts dark 

 umber brown, lighter and with fulvous edgings on the head and neck ; upper tail coverts yellowish white, with rufous and 

 brown spots and bands. Throat white, with narrow longitudinal stripes of brown, other under parts pale yellowish white with 

 longitudinal lines and spots of reddish brown tinged with fulvous, most numerous on the breast, and forming an irregular band 

 across the abdomen ; under tail coverts and tibiae generally clear yellowish white unspotted, but the latter frequently spotted and 

 transversely barred with light rufous. Under surface of tail silvery white. 



Young Tail usually ashy brown, with numerous bands of a darker shade of the same color and narrowly tipped with 



white, upper tail coverts white with bands of dark brown ; other upper parts dark umber brown, many feathers edged with dull 

 white and with partially concealed spots of white. Entire under parts white, sides of the breast with large ovate spots of 

 brownish black, and a wide irregular band on the abdomen composed of spots of the same color. Under tail coverts and tibim 

 with irregular transverse stripes and sagittate spots of dark brown. 



Total length. — Female, 22 to 24 inches ; wing, 15 to 16 inches ; tail, 8^ inches. Male, 19 to 21 inches ; wing, 14 inches ; 

 tail, 7^ to 8 inches. 



Hob. — Eastern North America, fur countries, (Swainson,) Cuba, (Lembeye,) Jamaica, (Gosse.) 



The range of this well known bird covers an extent of longitude from the Atlantic ocean to 

 the base of the Kocky mountains, and in latitude its locality may be said to be from the West 

 India islands northward to the confines of the frigid zone. In the countries on the Pacific it is 

 supplanted by the nearly allied species immediately succeeding, (Buteo montanus.) 



In the collections made by the surveying and exploring expeditions, there are specimens of 

 this bird from the Yellow Stone river, Nebraska Territory, and others from the Pecos river, 

 Texas. Specimens in immature plumage are also in Dr. T. Charlton Henry's collection made 

 at Fort Fillmore, New Mexico. 



4 b 



