Volume 6, Number 5 I 
New SerleSi Number 83 I 
SATURDAY, 
MAY 1, 1875. 
Established A. D. 1871, 
84, a Year, 1 0 cts a Coby 
NOTICE OF A VERY RARE HAWK. 
BY ROBERT RID6WAY. 
In the year 1870, there was described in the proceed- 
ings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natuial Science, 
(page 149), a new species of hawk belonging to the col- 
lection in the museum of the Smithsonian Institute, at 
Washington. It had been presented by Mr. F. Gruber, 
a well known taxidermist of San Francisco, according 
to whom it had been obtained in California; but in re- 
gard to just what part of the State it had been procured 
in there was no information on the label. It was a 
small, inconspicuous soecies, of a uniform blackish 
brown color, so closely resembling Buteo fuliginosm 
Sclater, from Mexico, that its label bore this name; until 
a closer examination proved it to be not only different 
specifically from this bird, but one previously unknown, 
and furthermore that it conld not be placed in any,^ge- 
nus which had then been named. The genus OnycJioUs 
was accordingly characterized, and the species named 
0. gruheri, in honor of the discoverer of so remarkable 
a bird. After this description was published, it oc- 
curred to me that the bird might possibly be some Old 
World species with which I was not acquainted, so the 
bird was packed up and sent to Mr. J. II. Gurney, the 
celtbrated authority on raptorial birds, for examination 
and comparison with the magnificent series of Falcon- 
i<fa;in the Norwich and British Museums. The opinion 
which Mr. Gurney expressed in reply was substantially, 
that it was a very remarkable bird, and different from 
anything which he had previously seen, in 1874, the 
bird was re-described and figured in the “ History of 
North American Birds” (Vol. Ill, page 254), a remark 
in the text explaining that ‘‘the type specimen still re- 
mains unique.” 
A year or so since, however, there was sent to the 
Smithsonian Institution, from the U. S. patent office, a 
small collection of mounted birds and other objects, 
which had for years been in one of the rooms of that de- 
partment. They had no labels, but were supposed to 
be part of the collection brought home by Commodore 
Wilkes, when in command of the United States Explor- 
ing Expedition. They were all well known North 
American ipecies except one, which tvas laid aside for 
future examination, since there was nothing then in the 
museum of the Smithsonian Institution to which it 
could be referred; it was, however, supposed to be some 
Old World form, perhaps one well known to European 
ornithologists. The other species comprising this col- 
lection (Ilaliaetus leucocephalns, Elanus cucurm, Accipi- 
Urcooperi, Tinnunculm gparcerius, efc.,), render it ex- 
tremely probable that the entire collection was made 
somewhere in the coast district of California. During 
the progress of my studies of the Falconida I becahie 
more familiar with the Old World forms; and finding 
that nothing among these at all resembled the specimen 
under consideration, I was led to submit it to a closer 
examination. It was then found that as regarded de- 
tails of form, and general proportions, it corre.sponded 
exactly with OnyclwUs gruheri, and upon comparison 
with the type of this species proved to be the same bird 
in the normal adult dress. As this plumage has not yet 
been described, the following is presented to the notice 
of those interested. 
• ONYCnoTES GRUBERI. 
Adall. (No. 62,168, California » ? U. S. Exploring 
Expedition ? ?) Head, neck, anu lower parts white, 
tinged with ochraceous, especially on the breast and lin- 
ing of the wing. Chin, throat, abdomen medially, and 
anal region immaculate. Each feather of the superior 
and lateral portions of the head and neck broadly black- 
ish brown medially, forming conspicuous stripes ; sides 
of the breast marked with narrower streaks of the same; 
sides and flanks clouded longitudinally with grayish 
brown ; tetrie faintly and sparsely mottled on the out- 
side with the same, and each feather of the crissum 
with a small transverse spot of grayish near the end; 
lining of the wing deep fine ochraceous, sjiarsely marked 
with small spots of dusky brown ; under primary-cov- 
erts pure white basally, their terminal half pale ash, 
with two or three darker bars ; under surface of the pri- 
maries immaculate, pure white, except be 5 mud their 
emarginition, where they are plain silvery gray, becom 
ing darker tow'ard the end. Upper parts dusky, gray- 
ish brown, the concealed bases of the feathers whitish, 
haired with dusky. Wing coverts with obscure darker 
bars; lesser wing-coverts somewhat tinged with rufous; 
secondaries very dark, Vandyke brown, with a faint 
purplish lustre, narrowly whitish at the tip, and crossed 
by almost obsolete narrow bars of darker ; primaries 
uniform deep brownish black, their inner webs more 
brownish gray, the feathers mottled with whitish be- 
neath the surface; upper tail coverts indistinctly barred 
with pale grayish and dull whitish upon a darker 
ground. Tail brownish gray (the edges of the feathers 
shaded into dusky), crossed by eleven or twelve very 
indistinct narrow bands of browmish black ; but these 
become gradually obsolete basally, so that their number 
is indefinite. Wing, 11.50; tail, 7.30 ; culmen ; 
tarsus, 2.80; middle toe, 1.60. Third quill longest, 
but fourth, fifth and sixth, successively, only percepti- 
bly shorter ; first equal to the tenth ; outer four with 
their inner webs distinctly emarginated. 
Young: (^o. 41703, Nat. Mus. ; F. Gruber. Type of 
species and genus!). Plumage almost uniformly dark 
bistre, or grayish umber, darker on the lesser wing- 
coverts and remiges ; feathers of the neck edged with 
dull rufous, forming indistinct streaks ; tetrae strongly 
tinged with ferrugineoiis, the lower feathers plain, rath- 
er pale cinnamon ; lining of the wing, rusty cinnamon, 
with dusky shaft-streaks; under primary-coverts and 
under surface of the primaries, as in the adult. Upper- 
parts entirely uniform, without any light markings 
whatever. Tail as in the adult. Femoral and tibial 
plumes, and feathers of the throat and cheeks with fine, 
whitish horny filaments attached to the tips of the 
shafts. Wing, 10.10 ; tail, 6.50 ; culmen, .80 ; tarsus, 
2.70 , middle toe, 1.45. [It is probable that this speci- 
men does not represent the normal coloration of the 
3 'oung, which will perhaps be found to be more or less 
variegated. It is most likely the melanistic stage, cor- 
responding to that of Buteo horealis y».r.colurm, B. swain- 
sonfand Archibuteolagopus \&r . sancti-joJiannis.'\ 
We hope that sportsmen in California will keep a 
sharp look-out for this hawk and by capturing a speci- 
men establish with certainty its habits. 
THE IHIGR-iTlTG QUAIL. 
BY DR. M. GOLDSMITH. ' 
To the Hon. Martin G. Ecarts, Dear Sir ; ■' 
I saw in a Vermont paper, wdiich some one was good 
enough to send me, a letter, from j'ou to me, quoted 
from the Amkric.\n Sports.\i.\x. As you have chosen 
this channel of communication, doubtless for the reason 
that you think the information you seek may be of 
equal interest to the other readers of that paper, I will 
answer in the way indicated. 
The migrating quail, to which your enquiries refer, 
resembles very closely our Virginia quail. The former, 
however, is of not much more than half the weight of 
the latter bird. The difference in color and markings is 
not so great as between the sexes as with our bird. In 
general coloration and marking thej’’ are like the Virgin- 
ians, but with less brilliancy of either color or mark- 
ing. The migrating quail arrives on the European 
shores of the Mediterranean in March and April. 
Hence it scatters its colonics over the Continent all the 
way North into Sweden or Norway. Some of^the 
birds breed as far South as Italy. In the Autumn they 
cross the Mediterranean on their way to their winter 
quarters on the African coast. The birds are killed 
during either of these migraiionte' along and over the 
Mediterranean shores. On their arrival in the Spring, 
they are so far exhausted as to become a prey to every 
device of this essentially pre-eminently pot-hunting 
people. They are driven into nets. They fly into nets 
like those used in Perugia; they are killed with sticks; 
they are trapped in nets like tho§e used for wild pig- 
eons; they are decoyed by blind singing quail; they are 
caught with scoop-nets like those which children use 
for catching butter-flies; they are hunted with torches 
and lanterns; thej' are shot as thej' cluster on their 
roosting ground ; they are shot as they huddle m 
branches. Sometimes an Italian “unco fou” and jolly, 
who wishes to ventilate his sportsmanship before ad- 
miring urchins, will illustrate the extravagance of Eng- 
lish sportsmen who waste a whole charge of ammuni- 
nition at a large bird. Such extravagance is Italian. 
However this may be, the birds lie well to the dog 
whenever there is cover, and afford as good sport, 
according to their size and value as their American 
congener. It seems to me that there is every probability 
that the migrating quail may be colonized in America. 
We have all the necessary climatic conditions. The 
birds are easilj’ obtained. They feed well in confine- 
ment and bear transportation from Italy to Paris per- 
fectly well. They are cheap enough. They are often 
bought in the Naples market for a little over a cent 
apiece. They can be had at any port in France and 
England, for they are tolerably abundant in some parts 
of England and all over France. My impression is that 
the better way would be to have some such a firm as 
Reiche & Co., of New York import them. It would be 
well to have some sent over in the Autumn, to have 
them wintered in cages and turned out in the spring 
somewhere in New England. There can be no question 
about the value of the migrating quail for food and 
sport both. Especially thej' would be valuable to the 
Northern States where the Virginia quail is not found. 
In these annual migrations from Maine to Florida they 
would, like the snipe, afford right roj’al sport to all the 
sportsmen over whose territories they would pass. 
From all I can learn, their migrations over a given 
region occupy, I should say, about six weeks. Along 
the coasts of the seas they cross, they tarry a while — 
resting after their transoceanic flight, or loth to under- 
take it. Thej' are not so abundant now, even on the 
Islands, as to darken the air or to cumber the ground, 
yet their flights are as welcome to the hungry lazzuroni, 
that is to nine-tenths of Italians, as are the swarms of 
locusts to the Diggei Indian. When they arrive from 
Egypt fainting, if quails ever faint, with the exhaustion 
of the passage, the whole shores of sea are lined with 
men and boj's to catch or kill the birds while yet too 
weak for a single struggle for life. This relentless pot- 
hunting, pursued without interruption for long centu- 
ries, is slowly telling upon their number, j'et for all this 
they yield more numbers to the table than anj' other 
bird in Europe. 
Hotel' d’ Autricue, Innsbruck, March 28. 
I learn from a shooting man here that the wachtel, or 
migratorj’ quail breeds here, and throughout the Tyrol, 
in considerable quantities. It nests, not along the plains 
so much, as in what is called the middle farms, i. e., in 
fields just above the first belt of timber, or about one 
thousand feet over the valley of Innsbruck; that is 
thrfie thousand feet over the sea. 
Chamois, and the several kinds of deer indigenous to 
these mountains are quite abundant, though the winter ’s 
snows have been this season, in some places, very fatal, 
despite the care taken of them. It is said that over 
