Part 59

HAB. Middle America (from coast to coast), from Costa Rica and Guatemala to southern border of United States. Arizona, breeding (BENDIRE). Southern Illinois (Richland Co.) June (RIDGWAY).

LIST OF SPECIMENS EXAMINED.

National Museum, 13; Philadelphia Academy, 3; Boston Society, 5; Cab. G. N. Lawrence, 1; R. Ridgway, 2. Total, 24.

Measurements.

+----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+ |Sex.| Wing. | Tail. | Culmen. | Tarsus. |Middle Toe.|Specimens.| +----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+ | ♂ | 9.80–11.50| 7.20–7.80| .85–.95|2.50–2.70| 1.55–1.70| 7 | +----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+ | ♀ | 9.50–11.30| 6.70–8.00| .80–1.00|2.75–2.70| 1.40–1.75| 4 | +----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+ | ⚪? |10.00–11.70| 6.80–8.00| .90–.95|2.65–2.80| 1.50–1.65| 4 | +----+-----------+-----------+---------+---------+-----------+----------+

HABITS. This is a Mexican and Central American Hawk, which occasionally crosses the borders of the United States, having been seen by Mr. Ridgway in Southern Illinois, and found breeding, by Captain Bendire, in Arizona, near Tucson. It has been found in the State of New Leon, one of the most northern provinces of Mexico, by Lieutenant Couch, who has, however, supplied no notes as to any peculiarities in its habits. It was said to breed in the tops of lofty trees, and to have eggs of a greenish-white, resembling those of Astur atricapillus. In Central America it is said by Salvin to be abundant in the hot country on both coast regions of the Republic of Guatemala, but it is not found in the temperate regions. Its food consists of lizards, and its flesh is in consequence very rank.

Mr. Robert Ridgway has met with this Hawk as far to the north as Southern Illinois. It was seen and twice shot at on the 19th of August, 1871, on Fox Prairie, in Richland County. Mr. Ridgway came across it while hunting Swallow-tail and Mississippi Kites. The bird, while being annoyed by these Hawks, was well seen, and there cannot be the slightest doubt as to its identity.

Mr. Robert Owen found this Hawk, known in Guatemala by the local name of Gavilan, a common name for the whole race of birds of prey, breeding at San Geronimo, April 3, 1860. The nests are usually found in the high trees which are scattered over the plain, and not unfrequently within a few yards of the Indian ranchos. Two eggs seemed to be the complement laid by one bird. These eggs are described by Mr. Owen as all white, without any natural coloring. The inner coating of the shell is sea-green, seeming to confirm the apparently close connection between the genera of Astur and Asturina.

Mr. G. C. Taylor met what he presumed to be this Hawk in great abundance at Comayagua, Honduras, in January. He saw a pair making their nest on the top of a lofty cotton-tree.

Captain Bendire found this species not uncommon and breeding in the vicinity of Tucson, in Arizona. He found two nests, one of which was taken June 6, the other a few days later. They were very slightly built of sticks and strips of bark, and placed in low trees on the banks of Reledo Creek. The nest contained two eggs. These are of a rounded oval shape, are quite tapering at one end and rounded at the other. They are of a uniform bluish-white color and unspotted, and measure 2.00 inches in length by 1.60 inches in breadth.

GENUS ANTENOR, RIDGWAY.

Antenor, RIDGWAY. (Type, Falco harrisi, AUD.) Craxirex, AUTHORS, not of GOULD.

=42559=, ♀. ¼ =42559=, ♀. ½ =42559=, ♀. ½

Parabuteo harrisi.]

GEN. CHAR. Similar to Asturina, but form heavier, the bill and wings more elongated, the tail slightly rounded, and the lores almost naked. Bill very much as in Asturina, but more elongated, the top of the cere longer in proportion to the culmen, and the commissural lobe more anterior; the upper and lower outlines more nearly parallel. Nostril oval, horizontal, with an exposed cartilaginous tubercle. Lores nearly naked, with scant bristles. Wing long (much as in Buteo); the fourth or fifth quill longest, and the first shorter than the eighth to the tenth; outer four with inner webs sinuated. Tail long, more than two thirds the wing; even or slightly rounded. Feet robust, when outstretched reaching nearly to the end of the tail; tarsus nearly twice the length of the middle, very robust, the frontal and posterior rows of scutellæ very distinct; outer toe longer than the inner; claws strong, well curved, and acute. Sexes alike; young and old plumages very different.

This genus includes a single species, the P. unicinctus, with its two climatic races, unicinctus of South America and harrisi of Middle America. It is most nearly related to the genus Urubitinga, of tropical America, the species of which are sluggish and almost Caracara-like in their habits, though they are hardly more so than our own Buteones. The genus Craxirex of Gould having been founded upon Buteo galapagoensis, a species strictly congeneric with B. borealis, it is necessary that a new generic name should be instituted for the present species, since it so well merits separation to that rank. I accordingly propose the name given at the head of this chapter.

Species and Races.

=P. unicinctus.= Wing, 11.65–14.60; tail, 9.00–11.00; culmen, .82–1.10; tarsus, 2.78–3.75; middle toe, 1.52–2.00. Adult. General color brownish-black or blackish-brown, uniform, or slightly variegated by light spotting; the lesser wing-coverts and tibiæ deep rufous, or chestnut. Tail black; the end and base white, as are also the tail-coverts. Young. Plumage greatly variegated. Above blackish-brown, the feathers edged with rusty; head and neck streaked with pale ochraceous. Lower parts pale ochraceous or yellowish-white, the breast and abdomen with longitudinal ovoid spots of blackish; tibiæ with transverse bars of dark rusty; lower tail-coverts with black shaft-streaks. Lesser wing-covert region only washed with rufous. Tail grayish-brown, whitish at the tip, and crossed by narrow bands of dusky.

Adult with the blackish much broken up by lighter spotting. Wing, 11.65–14.60; tail, 9.00–10.50; culmen, .82–1.02; tarsus, 2.78–3.40; middle toe, 1.52–1.85. Hab. South America …

var. unicinctus.

Adult with the blackish continuous and uniform. Wing, 12.35–14.50; tail, 9.80–11.00; culmen, .90–1.10; tarsus, 3.15–3.75; middle toe, 1.65–2.00. Hab. Middle America, north into southern border of United States …

var. harrisi.

Parabuteo unicinctus, var. harrisi (RIDGWAY).

HARRIS’S BUZZARD.

Falco harrisi, AUD. B. Am. pl. cccxcii, 1831.—IB. Orn. Biog. V, 30. Buteo harrisi, AUD. Synop. 1839, 5.—BONAP. List, 3.—DE KAY, Zoöl. N. Y. II, 11.—Craxirex unicinctus, var. harrisi, RIDGWAY, P. A. N. S. Philad. Dec. 1870, p. 142. Buteo unicinctus, var. harrisi, COUES, Key, 1872, 215. “Craxirex unicinctus, TEMM.” CASS. Birds N. Am. 1858, 46.—DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 329 (Texas).—COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 13 (Arizona).

SP. CHAR. Adult male (17,230, Cape St. Lucas, Lower California; J. Xantus). General plumage uniform sooty-black, purest on the tail, somewhat tinged with chestnut on the rump. Lesser wing-coverts and lateral half of each web of middle coverts, also the tibiæ, rich deep chestnut, perfectly uniform. Upper and lower tail-coverts, and broad basal and terminal zones of tail, pure white, the anterior band concealed (except on outer feathers) by the upper coverts, and about twice the width of the last, which is about 1 inch wide. Tail-coverts with a few irregular narrow shaft-streaks of blackish. Lining of wing deep chestnut, like the shoulders; each greater covert with a black shaft-streak; primaries beneath plain black. Wing, 14.50; tail, 10.00; tarsus, 3.25; middle toe, 2.00. Fourth and fifth quills longest and equal; third considerably shorter; second intermediate between sixth and seventh; first 3.40 shorter than longest.

Adult female (42,559, Iztlan, Mexico; Colonel Grayson). Generally similar to the male; the black, however, less pure and more brownish, the chestnut more extended, the whole rump being of this color, the last feathers merely being blackish in the middle. White of tail-coverts without blackish streaks. Wing, 14.60; tail, 10.30; tarsus, 3.25; middle toe, 1.95.

Immature male (second year, 50,763, Tepic, Mexico; Colonel Grayson). Upper parts similar to adult, but less uniform; the nape and back with feathers edged with rusty; sides of head and neck very much streaked. Breast and abdomen light ochraceous, with large longitudinal oval spots of black; tibiæ light ochraceous, with rather distant transverse bars of dark rusty-brown; lower tail-coverts ochraceous-white, with black shaft-lines. Rufous on the wings more extended and more broken; none on the rump. Terminal band of tail narrower and less sharply defined than in adult; inner webs of primaries with basal two-thirds white, irregularly mottled with dusky. “Iris chestnut-brown; cere, chin, and space round the eyes yellow.”