10 
variations exhibited by different copies of the hand-coloured plates. The 
specimen there described and figured is undoubtedly a juvenile Red-tailed 
Hawk in melanotic plumage, but whether if would develop at its next 
moult into a freckled-tailed bird such as we have here called harlani or a 
bird with a barred, red tail like calurus there is absolutely no means of 
telling. The geographical probability of the locality is calurus as much as 
harlani and there is no evidence against the former in either plate or 
description. Audubon was certainly mistaken in believing that these 
birds had bred at Francisville, Louisiana, as he states. 
The original specimens seem to have disappeared and are not available 
for examination. Even if they were, it is a question whether they could be 
certainly identified in this plumage. Audubon says that he deposited 
the female of the pair illustrated in the British Museum, and in the “Catal- 
ogue of Birds” of that institution, vol. I, page 191, a specimen is attributed 
to him and described as his type. Comparison of this description with that 
of Audubon and the plate, however, makes it evident that different birds 
and plumages are dealt with in the two cases. Audubon’s birds have 
dark, barred tails, the British Museum one has a freckled tail. If Audubon 
ever saw this extraordinary, freckled-tailed adult, it is remarkable that he 
should have left no record of it. There has certainly been some mistake 
or accident in the history of this British Museum specimen and, with 
Audubon’s lack of reference to the adult of this form, more proof than is 
evident is necessary to connect him with it. 
It thus appears that Audubon, in 1830, named a juvenile black-phased 
Red-tail “harlani.” In 1855, Cassin named another black-phased Red- 
tail “ Calurus ” and there is no evidence except later usage to show that 
they were not one and the same race; they probably w r ere. The bird as 
drawn by Audubon is distinctly brown rather than black and the Western 
Red-tail seems the more likely occurrence in Louisiana where the specimen 
was collected. Therefore, harlani has either to be abandoned as a nomen 
nudem or else retained and given priority over calurus as the name of the 
Western Red-tail. The first case would cause little or no nomenclatural 
confusion, but does not seem to be justified, especially if, as here advo- 
cated, the two black-phased Red-tails be united in a single subspecies. 
Unfortunately, it seems necessary to sink calurus into synonomy and to 
apply the name harlani to the bird that has carried it so long. That this 
will confuse an enormous amount of literature is regrettable, but unavoid- 
able if we follow the facts of the case as here presented and the established 
rules of nomenclature. 
The species should then appear in the Check-list as follows: 
Buteo borealis (Gmelin) Red-tailed Hawk, as defined in 1910 
Check-list 
Buteo borealis borealis (Gmelin) Eastern Red-tail, including B. b. 
borealis and B. b. krideri of Check-list 
Buteo borealis harlani (Audubon) Western Red-tail, including 
B. b. harlani and B. b. calurus 
