105 
YouDg male (41,129, Cuba, Dr. Gundlach):—Above dark vamlyke- 
brown,the feathers bordered inconspicuously with dark rusty; tail dull 
slate, narrowly tipped with ashy-white, and crossed with four broad 
bands of dusky, almost equal to the slate in width; beneath, white, much 
tinged on breast and tibiae with reddish-ochraceous; thickly striped 
with umber-brown, except on crissum, the streaks on throat narrow and 
cuneate, those on breast broad, and on sides changing into broad 
transverse spots or bars; tibiae thickly spotted transversely with more 
reddish, nearly rufous, brown; larger lower tail-coverts with narrow 
shaft-streaks of black. Occiput showing much concealed white, the 
ends of the feathers deep black. Wing, 8.C0; tail, 7.50 ; culmen, 0.G8; 
tarsus, 2.50; middle toe, 1.70. 
Young female (41,128, Cuba,Dr. Gundlach):—Similar,but more thickly 
striped beneath, the dark markings about equaling the white in extent; 
w'hole sides with large transverse spots of umber, cuneate along shafts. 
Wing, 10.50 ; tail, 9.50. 
Remarks. —In regard to its relationship to its nearest allies, _Y. cooperi 
and N. pileatus , Mr. Lawrence ( l. c. p. 8) remarks of this species:—“Avery 
marked feature in the adult of this species is the ash-color of the breast 
and sides, which does not exist at all in cooperi; the under surface is less 
marked with white than in that species; the thighs are of a nearly uniform 
rufous, which in cooperi are conspicuously barred with white; in the latter 
the under wing-coverts are white, with longitudinal spots of rufous-brown, 
whereas in gundlachi they are rufous barred with white. From A. pile- 
atus, as figured in PI. Col. pi. 205, it is also very different; the adult of that 
species has the top of the head dark slate, the upper plumage of a rather 
light slate-blue; wings, dark slate; tail, with four dark bands, whitish 
between; the under plumage pale whitish-blue; thighs, deep rufous; no 
appearance of bars on any part of the plumage; under tail-coverts, white; 
bill, bluish, under mandible yellow at the base; legs, yellow.” 
In the “History of North American Birds” (iii, p. 223, foot-note), this 
species is considered to be a geograph ical race of N.cooperi; and Mr. Sharpe, 
in his great work, the “Catalogue of the Accipitres, or Diurnal Birds of 
Prey, in the collection of the British Museum” (p. 137, foot-note), remarks 
that it “will probably prove on examination to be identical with the 
small, richly-colored form of A. cooperi , called by Swainsou A. meod- 
canus v . We have shown before that the latter is not entitled to recogni¬ 
tion as even a race, though we had previously accorded it that rank, w hile 
Mr. Sharpe (tom. cit. p. 137) more properly places it among the synonyms 
of A. cooperi. In regard to the N. gundlachi , the erroneous conclusions 
of both authors were the result of lack of specimens for comparison, and 
too hasty examination of published descriptions. The above description 
of the adult, copied from the original paper by Mr. Lawrence (Annals of 
the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, vii, May, 1800, p. 252), shows 
clearly the perfect distinctness of this Cuban species from its,North 
American ally as well as from all other species of the genus. 
List of specimens in United States National Museum. 
Catalogue No. 
|4 
c . 
CO ^ 
I'A 
o 
o 
5c 
w 
9 
B* 
00 . 
— w 
£ 
1 Sex and age. 
Locality. 
When col¬ 
lected. 
From whom received. 
Collected by— 
41124 
M. 
cf juv. 
Cuba. 
Dr. Gundlach 
41129 
M. 
C juv. 
....do . 
No. 2- 
