478 
Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 
wing-coverts, the peculiar dark brown tint which is also cha¬ 
racteristic of the adult B. fuliginosus . 
Messrs. Salvin and Godraan have kindly lent me a melan- 
istic specimen of Buteola brachyura from Yeragua, killed 
whilst moulting, and retaining a sufficient portion of the old 
plumage in great measure to verify this remark, which is 
further borne out by another melanistic specimen belonging 
to the same gentlemen, and also obtained in Yeragua, in which 
the moult appears, from the character of the plumage, to have 
taken place some months before the bird was killed. The first 
of these specimens has the interspaces on the upper part of 
the outer rectrices white on both webs; but this is not a con¬ 
stant character, and is therefore not to be relied on. Both the 
above-mentioned specimens retain the white forehead, which 
is conspicuous in normal examples, and which is probably 
constantly characteristic of the adults of this species, though 
not of immature specimens. Another and, I believe, a con¬ 
stant distinction is, that in Buteola brachyura the dark trans¬ 
verse bars on the tail are more strictly horizontal than in the 
adult birds of Buteo fuliginosus , in which the central portion 
of these bars is lower than the extremities, as shown in the 
figure of this species in the ( Transactions of the Zoological 
Society/ vol. iv. pi. 62, and in the ‘'Birds of North America/ 
by Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence, pi. 15. fig. 1. I will add 
one other element of diagnosis between these two Buzzards : 
the space between the tip of the longest tertial and of the 
longest primary, though somewhat variable, is, on the average, 
decidedly less in Buteola brachyura than in Buteo fuliginosus. 
The following tables will serve to illustrate this peculiarity, 
and also to show how closely the two species approach each 
other in their general dimensions :— 
