480 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 
The immature specimen of Buteola brachyura from Rio de 
Janeiro, included in the first of these tables, agrees with Mr. 
Sharpe's description of that species in its immature plumage; 
the bird from Tint a, which I believe to he an immature Buteo 
fuliginosus , and which I have so included in the second table, 
bears a considerable general resemblance to the immature 
Buteola brachyura , from which, however, it differs in having 
all the feathers of the underparts, except those of the throat 
and crissum, which are immaculate, embellished with a con¬ 
spicuous dark longitudinal shaft-mark of varying breadth, 
these being narrowest on the upper breast and abdomen, 
broader on the lower breast, and occupying almost the en¬ 
tirety of each feather on the flanks ; on the tibiae the shaft- 
marks are expanded into a double transverse bar across each 
feather; the transverse dark bars on the upper surface of the 
tail in this specimen are ten, whereas in the immature Bu¬ 
teola brachyura they are but seven. 
The genus Buteola is followed in Mr. Sharpe's work (and, 
I think, very naturally so) by Asturina; and I would refer my 
readers to some valuable remarks on this genus by Messrs. 
Sclater and Salvin in the P. Z. S. for 1869, p. 129. As there 
pointed out, this genus “ may be separated into three groups, 
as follows :— 
“ (1) The species allied to A. nitida, of which there appear 
to be two representive forms, one . ... A. plagiata, the other 
the true A. nitida .... 
“ (2) The species allied to A. magnirostris , which is the type 
of the genus Rupornis of Kaup .... 
(3) The isolated species A. leucorrhoa, which appears to be 
a true Asturina in structure, but in plumage forcibly calls to 
mind the Buteo [ Buteola ] brachyurus , Vieill." 
The similarity of plumage referred to in the last paragraph 
of the passage just quoted is especially apparent when the 
adult A. leucorrhoa is compared with the melanistic phase of 
the adult B. brachyura ; and its existence will be a sufficient 
reason for dealing first with this species in our consideration 
of the genus Asturina. 
I suspect that the measurements given by Mr. Sharpe as 
