OCR Text |
Show 120 NISUS VENTRALIS. Accipiter trythrocnemin* ? SCL. P. Z. S. 1855,134.- ORTOX, Am. Vat. 1871, 6* 24 ( Quito Valley). Accipiter venirali* Scr,. P. Z. S. 1866, 303.- SCL. & SALV. EX. Orn. ii, 1867, 25, pi. xiii; ib. xi, 170 ; P. Z. S. 1870, 7H2, 788 ( Veuezuela); Nom. Neotr. 1873, 120,- GRVY, Hand List, i, 1869, 32.- SIIAHPK. Cat. Ace. B. M. 1874, 149. ? Accipiter trigrt- plumbeuM, LAWR. AUU. N. Y. Lye. 1869, 270 ( Qaito Valley, EcDa< lor= melanism ?). Jlab.- Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. Wing, 6.30- 8.70; tail, 5.40- 7.25; culmen, 0 35- 0.55; tarsus, 1.65- 2.20; middle toe, 1.10- 1.50. Fourth and fifth qnills longest; first shortest; outer five with inner webs sinuated. Tail even, or very slightly rounded. Tibiae uniform deep rufous. Tail dull black, crossed by four narrow continuous bands of slate- gray or brownish- gray, and narrowly tipped with grayish or white. Adult.- Above, uniform dark plumbeous except the tail, the scapulars and upper tail- coverts with concealed white spots. Beneath, chiefly rufous, sometimes entirely so, but usually whitish in the crissum and throat, and often broken along the middle line by an indistinct transverse white spotting. Fating- Above, dark sepia, the feathers with rusty terminal borders. Lower parts ( except tibiae) white, marked with large, rather longitudinal, sagittate spots of umber. Sexes alike in color, but differing in size as follows:- Males:- Wing, 6.60- 6.95 ; tail, 5.70- 6.20; culmen, 0.40- 0.45; tarsus, 1.90- 2.10; middle toe, 1.25- 1.30. ( Six specimens.) Females:- Wing, 7.75- 8.00; tail, 6.80- 7.00; culmen, 0.50- 0.55; tar sus, 2.15- 2.20; middle toe, 1.40- 1.50. ( Four specimens.) There is greater variation in the plumage of this species than in any of its allies, and, contrary to the usual rule, the adults vary more than the young. The darkest example of the latter we have seen is an adult male from Ecuador in Mr. Salviu's collection. In this specimen, every portion of the lower parts is rufous, even the throat, crissum, and lining of the wing being of this color, while the tibiae and abdomen are so dark ami purplish as to border on a chestnut shade. The flanks show narrow, transverse, indistinctly- defined bars of white. An adult male from the interior of New Granada is quite a contrast to this, and represents the light extreme. In this example, the breast is nearly uniform light gray and rufous, the former predominating, while the sides, abdomen, and flanks are barred with white, gray, and rufous, in broad, ragged, not well- defined bars, of which the white ones average the widest, while the rufous and gray are mixed in nearly equal proportion. The crissum and throat are pure white, the latter with dusky shaft-streaks; the lateral feathers of the former with a faint mottling of grayish. An adult male from Venezuela ( Merida) has the flanks uniform deep rufous, like the tibiae; the breast, belly, and sides being light grayish- fulvous, becoming lighter toward thejugulum; the feathers marked with darker grayish bars concealed beneath the surface. Other specimens are variously intermediate between these, there being usually more or less of an indistinct barring of white and grayish along the median line of the abdomen and breast. The young birds vary considerably also, especially in the markings of the lower parts. In the males, these are usually longitudinal on the breast; but in the two females before us, each of these markings spreads anteriorly, so as to form a spot of a widely sagittate form. Besides the variations noted above, the N. nigrophmheus ( Lawrence) may represent a melauism of the adult plumage in this species, since, |