2 12 
R idg way on a Tropical American Hawk. 
Some specimens presumed to be adult females have the sides 
of the breast grayish-brown, like the wing-coverts, without any 
tinge of rufous. 
While the young are, like the adult, sometimes immaculate 
beneath, as described by Mr. Sharpe, they appear to occasionally 
have the lower plumage striped with dusky, since Mr. Gurney 
(Ibis, 1876, p. 480) describes an example from Peru, which he 
refers to B . fuliginosus , and which u bears a considerable gen- 
eral resemblance to the young of Buteola brachyura , from 
which, however, it differs in having all the feathers of the under- 
parts, except those of the throat and crissum, which are immacu- 
late, embellished with a conspicuous dark longitudinal shaft- 
mark of varying breadth, these being narrowest on the upper 
breast and abdomen, broader on the lower breast, and occupying 
almost the entirety of each feather on the flanks ; on the tibiae 
the shaft-marks are expanded into a double transverse bar across 
each feather ; the transverse dark bars on the upper surface of 
the tail in this specimen are ten, whereas in the immature 
Buteola brachyura they are but seven.” 
(?) Buteola fuliginosus Sclater. 
Little Black Hawk, 
(= melanistic phase of B. brachyurus f) 
Bateo fuligijtosus Scl. P.Z.S. 1858, 356 (Tamaulipas, N. E. Mexico; = 
young $); Trans. Zool. Soc. iv, 1858, 1, 267, pi. lxii. — Lawr. Ann. 
Lyc. N. Y. ix, 1868, 133 (La Palma, Costa Rica) ; Bull. U. S. Nat. 
Mus. no. 4, 1876, 42 (Tehuantepec City, S. W. Mexico). — Ridgw. Pr. 
Philad. Acad. 1870, 142. — Gurney, Ibis, 1876, 235, 477-80 (critical). 
“ Buteo brachyurus ” Salvin, P.Z.S. 1870, 215. 
“ Buteola brachyura ” Gurney, Ibis, 1876, 477-80 (part). 
Hab. Eastern Tropical America, from Brazil to Northern Mexico 
(Mazatlan and Tamaulipas) and Western Florida (Oyster Bay). 
Sp. Ch. — Size small (total length not exceeding 16 inches) ; wing 
proportionately long, reaching, when closed, nearly or quite to the end 
of the tail. 3rd or 4th quill longest, the 1st equal to or longer than the 
10th ; four outer quills with inner webs emarginated. the cutting less 
abrupt on the 4th, however. Tarsal scutellse 8-n. Wing, 11. 20-13. 20; 
extent of primaries beyond longest tertials, 2.50-4.50; tail, 7.00-8.00; 
culmen, .70-.85 : tarsus, 2.05-2.65 ; middle toe, 1.35-1.60. 
Adult : Uniform black or dusky, varying from dark sooty brown to 
almost a coal-black, freshly moulted specimens usually having a chalky 
or glaucous cast on the back, and a more or less distinct purplish reflection 
