HYPOTHETICAL LIST. TAT 
ordinary circumstances and doubtless is the species which has given rise 
to the reports mentioned. The Black Vulture is more southern in its 
distribution and is much less common in most parts of the south. 
Of course it is by no means impossible that wanderers may occur in Mich- 
igan, but we have yet to learn of a record. The specimen reported, as 
shot near Goodrich, Genesee county by Dr. Green, October 10, 1888, and 
eal in Mr. Spicer’s collection, proves on examination to be a Turkey 
uzzard. 
European Buzzard. Buteo buteo (Linn.). (336) 
A native of Europe and western Asia which closely resembles several 
of our buzzard hawks, especially Swainson’s Hawk and the Red-tailed 
Hawk in certain plumages. It occurs in Kneeland’s list of the birds of 
Keweenaw Point, Lake Superior, under the name of Buteo vulgaris, Bechst., 
but probably was based on Swainson’s Hawk, which Kneeland did not 
record and which he probably mistook for the European Buzzard. There 
are several other records, especially one of a specimen said to have been 
taken at Paw Paw, Van Buren county, Michigan, about October 1, 1873, 
by J. D. Allen; identified by Ridgway, and now in the National Museum. 
The species was included by Coues in the 5th edition of his “ Key,” 1903, 
also in Ridgway’s Manual and in the A. O. U. Check-list (2d ed., 1905), 
number 336, all largely on the strength of this single specimen. 
More or less doubt has always attached to the Michigan specimen above 
cited; not as to the specimen itself, which was correctly identified, but 
as to its origin in Michigan. It is now believed that through an unin- 
tentional interchange of specimens a European skin was included with 
others collected in America and that there is no actual record of the 
European Buzzard for this country. Hence it is omitted entirely from 
the latest edition (1910) of the A. O. U. Check-list. 
Western Red-tail. Buteo borealis calurus Cass. (337b) 
Very similar to the common Red-tail, but decidedly darker, some speci- 
mens almost black everywhere except on the tail. The tail is like that 
of the ordinary Red-tail, but always with a black subterminal band and 
sometimes with several narrower dark bands. 
Distribution. Western North America, from the Rocky Mountains to 
the Pacific, south into Mexico; casually east to Illinois. 
It is supposable that the Western Red-tail should occur accidentally 
in Michigan, but we do not know of a Michigan specimen in any collection. 
The late Dr. J. W. Velie, of St. Joseph, told the writer that while at 
Petoskey, Emmet county, in September 1893, he saw a perfectly black 
Red-tailed Hawk at very close range. He was riding on an open car at 
the time and the bird was frightened by the engine and flew up and alighted 
on a branch close to the track and sat there with wings spread and mouth 
wide open while the train passed. Dr. Velie was so close that he “could 
see every feather on the bird” and is positive that it was a black Buteo. 
This is a good example of a questionable record. The observer probably 
was as well qualified to identify the bird in question as anyone could be, 
and the view of the bird left little to be desired. Nevertheless it may have 
been Buteo borealis harlani, and there is even a possibility that it was a 
Rough-legged Hawk (Archibuteo). Only the capture of the specimen 
