20 8 Ridgway on a Tropical American Hawk. 
uniform black color, like B. abbreviatus .* It has been con- 
sidered by various writers to be a dark or ^melanistic phase of 
B. brachynrns , but in this view I cannot concur, no specimens 
among many which I have examined indicating that any light 
color-phase exists ; both young and old, though otherwise quite 
different, being uniform black below as well as above. 
“ While premising that this bird may be the Buteo fuliginosits 
of Sclater, it should be remarked that in ‘History of North Amer- 
ican Birds’ (Vol. Ill, p. 266), I referred this name to B. swain- 
soni , on the presumption that it was probably based on a small 
specimen of the latter species in the dark phase of plumage ; 
but I may have been wrong in this determination.” 
That this latter conclusion was incorrect seems now quite certain, 
as the following will show. ‘ Having, as previously stated, a 
suspicion that the Buteo fuliginosits of Sclater might be the 
small black Hawk usually regarded as a phase of B. brachyunts 
Vieill., I wrote to Dr. Sclater about the matter, laying special 
stress upon the following facts: (1) That in the plate of B. 
fuliginosus there appeared no trace of the white frontlet usually, 
if not always, observable in the so-called black form of B . brach- 
yurus , and (2) that of the considerable number of specimens of 
the latter which I had examined the characters were very uniform, 
giving one the impression of its being, like B. abbreviatus , a 
species without any light color-phase. The type of B . fuligino- 
sus being in the Norwich Museum, Dr. Sclater applied to Mr. 
Gurney, the well-known high authority on Raptorial birds, the 
results of whose investigations I have, through the courtesy of 
Dr. Sclater, the privilege of giving herewith. Mr. Gurney 
writes : — 
“ I have consulted Mr. Salvin on the subject of Mr. Ridgway’s 
inquiry, with the following result in which we both concur : 
“ We think that Mr. Ridgway is correct in his identification 
of the bird which he refers to the melanistic phase of Buteola 
brachyura , but we observe that the melanistic specimens of this 
species vary as to the intensity of the black coloring of the 
plumage and also as to the amount of white on the forehead 
which is sometimes almost nil. 
“ Messrs. Salvin and Godman have a good series of Buteola 
brachyura in various stages and they also have a specimen from 
* “B. zonocercus" of Hist. N. Am. Birds. 
