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Show 158 b. Melanotic phase. Adult t ( VI): Uniform brownish black. Tail deep black, narrowly tipped with white, and crossed by two bands of gray, which change to white or cream- color on the inner webs (=( 7. boliviensis BUEM. and C. pucherani L^ OT.). Young ( VII): Similar to the above, but the feathers of the upper surface with narrow terminal margines of rusty, and those of the cri8sum with white tips. The black plumage described above, and upon which Cymindis boliti-crisis of Burmeister and <?. pucherani of L£ otaud were based, is almost certainly merely a melanism of the common R. uncinatus. We have seen two specimens- an adult in the museum of the Boston Society of Natural History and a young female in the American Musum of New York. They agree entirely with Burmeister's description referred to above, which is as follows:- DiAG.- UC fusco- nigra, remigibus rectricibusque subtits albofa& ciatk; cera pedibusque croceis; long 18". " We have of this species one specimen iu our museum, which was killed near Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in the woody plains of the interior of Bolivia. As I can fiud no description of this bird in the works fallen under my inspection, I describe it as a new species. u In size and figure, entirely like the common Brazilian species Cym. uncinata. The bill not stronger, and of the same form, but rather longer; the upper mandible black, the lower mandible whitish. The sides of the face, from the beak to the eyes, naked, with some black bristles in a row from the eye to the nostrils." Iris dark brown. The whole plumage blackish- brown, but the bases of the feathers of the vertex from the front to the occiput white; the nuchal feathers elongated, broad, rounded. First primary short, not longer than the secondaries; the second somewhat longer than the fifth; the third somewhat longer than the same; and the fourth the longest of all; every one with four or five white bands on the inside, of which the exterior is somewhat grayish. Secondaries of nearly equal size, every one with five or six whitish bands on the inside, which are only clear white in the middle of the plume. Tail only two inches longer than the wings in position, black, with two large gray bands on the upper side, and the same white on the under side, and a similar margin at the ends of the rectrices. Legs yellow, with black claw8, the outer toe the same length as the inner; the tarsus covered in front with small hexagonal scales. " Whole length, from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail, 18 inches; beak, 1 inch; wing, 10 inches; tail, 7 inches; tarsus, 1£ inch; middle claw [ toej without the nail, 14 lines, the nail, 8 lines." With Burmeister's description of his Cymindis bolivienMs} as quoted above, a specimen in the collection of the Boston Society of Natural History; * while another in the New York Museum agrees very closely but has the feathers of the upper surface narrowly bordered terminally with rusty, and the lower tail- coverts with white. Tail deep black, narrowly tipped with white, and crossed by two zones of gray, which change to white or cream- color ou the inuer webs. The specimen in the New York Museum is marked " 9 juv. Brazil", and, judging from the rusty borders to the feathers, is undoubtedly an immature bird. The other specimen is marked simply u South America ". # This specimen is No. 1411 on p. 53 of " Catalogue of the Falconidse in the museum of the Society " ( Proceedings, May 21, 1873). |
