488 
^Letters, Announcements^ 
identification^ for the differences in the plumage are too great 
to he merely varietal/^ 
From the verbal account of the bird sent by letter, Mr. 
E-idgway thought it might prove to be the rare Buteo cooperi; 
but on taking it to Washington it has been ascertained to 
be Buteo al bicau datus of Vieillot, a not uncommon bird in 
Mexico, but never before taken within our territory. 
It also turns out that the Scops found in the valley of the 
Eio Grande is not the Scops maccalli of Cassin, as has been 
all along supposed, but your Guatemalan variety, race, or 
species—what you will— Scops enano. What makes this de¬ 
termination the more unintelligible is the fact that, according 
to the Pacific E. E. Eeports, vol. ix., S. maccalli was de¬ 
scribed from a Texan type. Cassin undoubtedly had also Cali¬ 
fornian specimens before him, all of them of the species now 
recognized as the true S. maccalli, and hence the confusion of 
the two forms by him. 
Since the above was written, and before I had an oppor¬ 
tunity of forwarding it, I have received a letter from Mr.’ 
Sennett j and as it gives me several interesting ornithological 
notes from the same region, I will briefly mention them. 
The eggs of SennetPs new Dove, called Mchmoptila alhi- 
frons, instead of being white are of a decided olive hue. The 
species new to our fauna secured by Mr. Sennett are Croto- 
phaga sulcirostris (in the Smithsonian list, but without evi¬ 
dence), Pitangus derbianus, and a Flycatcher whose name 
he does not mention. Mr. Sennett has also taken in Texas 
specimens of Scops enano and Buteo albicaudatus. 
Yours &c., 
Thomas M. Brewer. 
P.S. I have just ascertained that the small rare Flycatcher 
taken by Mr. Sennett, and new to our fauna, is Ornithion 
incanescens, a but little-known species, and one that no one 
would have looked for as likely to turn up in the United 
States. Ornithologically, you see, we are extending a pro¬ 
tectorate over the feathered inhabitants of Mexico and Cen¬ 
tral America, or rather they are seeking it. 
