Grinnell (1909:211) described a new subspecies of the Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis alascensis, as “always blackest dorsally, and decidedly smaller” than a “large series” of Western Red-tailed Hawks, B. j. calurus, at that time the only subspecies of B. jamaicensis recognized in western North America. He based his description of this “Alaska Red-tailed Hawk” on four specimens collected in 1907 in southeast Alaska (Figures 1–3), two of which he designated as the type specimens. Grinnell compared the adult type, MVZ 51 (♂), with adults of calurus and found it darker dorsally, with a wider dark subterminal tail band, stronger flnk barring, and wider black shaft streaks on the belly. The other three specimens comprise a juvenile (MVZ 41), also designated as a type, and both of its parents. The latter (MVZ 42, ♀; MVZ 43, ♂) are more typical of alascensis in having the breast rufous (Figures 2 and 3). Grinnell wrote that the juvenile type specimen is also darker above and has the dark tail bands wider than those of juvenile calurus; he saw no suggestion of a dark morph in alascensis. So far as known, the range of alascensis comprises the temperate rain forests of southeast Alaska and coastal British Columbia, including the Queen Charlotte Islands (now Haida Gwaii) and western Vancouver Island (see Hellmayr and Conover 1949, Wheeler 2003).