Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Accipitres. 485 
has moreover another noticeable feature, which is likewise 
common to the genus Pandion , in the rugose under surface 
of the foot, a provision specially adapted to retain a grasp on 
the slippery prey which constitutes the sustenance of this 
fish-eating Buzzard* as well as of the Osprey. As neither 
in the case of Buteogallus (equinoctialis nor in that of Busa- 
rellus nigricollis does Mr. Sharpe give a description of the 
immature plumage, I supply the following particulars, derived 
from specimens in the Norwich Museum :— 
Buteogallus equinoctialis, immature, from British 
Guiana. 
The crown of the head is dark brown, with narrow yellowish 
white margins to many of the feathers, especially towards the 
sides of the head, and with an irregular yellowish white super- 
cilium ; the cheeks, ear-coverts, and throat are pale buff, with 
dark shaft-marks to the feathers; on the back and sides of 
the neck similar but broader shaft-marks occupy the greater 
part of the feather, leaving only a buff edging ; and dark fea¬ 
thers of this character form an irregular gorget extending 
from the sides of the neck across the throat, but not quite 
meeting in front; the entire mantle is dark wood-brown, with 
paler tips to the feathers, these tips being broadest on the 
wing-coverts, but very narrow elsewhere; the feathers of the 
bastard wing, the secondaries, and the tertials are crossed by 
alternate transverse bars of rufous and dark brown, the rufous 
being brightest on the inner webs of the tertials; the upper 
surface of the tail is crossed by nine narrow dark brown bars, 
below the last of which, at an interval of about an inch, are 
two more narrow subterminal bars; but on the inner web of 
* Col. A. J. Grayson, who obtained this species near the mouth of the 
Mazatlan river, writes respecting it, “the flight of this Hawk seems 
rather heavy, resembling somewhat the common Fish-Hawk, the wings 
appearing very broad, and the tail remarkably short. Upon examining the 
contents of the stomach I found only the remains of fish, one of which had 
been but freshly devoured $ it was a species of perch found in the lagoons 
and rivers of this region.” ( Vide Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 1874; 
p. 302; also Bidgway’s 1 Studies of American Falconidse,’ p. 144.) [See 
also our note on the food of this species (Ibis, 1859, p. 216).— Ed.] • 
2 l 2 
