(211 ) 

 2. Aceipiter affinis Gnrney. 



Aceipiter virfiatim, siilsp. affinis (ex Hodgson, Gray's Znol. J/mc, 1884. p. 81, nomen nudum!) 

 Gurney, List tif Diurnal. B. of Prey, pp. 3'j and 168-73 — Himalayas [and Formosa]). 



There can be no donbt that this is qnite a different bird from both A. rirqatus 

 {besm, confusx.'i) and A. gularis, and I do not think it can Ije considered a sub- 

 species of either. 



It is a mnch larger bird than A. virgatus (wing of adnlt males abont ITO — 170 

 mm.); the sexes are alike in coloration. The adult bird is dark slat)' -brown above, 

 the back browner, the crown darker and more slate-colour, the bases of the featliers 

 on the najte and hindneck white and more or less showing throngli, if the featliers 

 are only sliglitly disarranged. The throat is white with wide blackish brown 

 longitudinal stripes, especially along the centre and laterally ; the crop is broadly 

 striped, but the rest of the lower surface is widely barred with brown on a white 

 ground. Young birds have the upper surface more brownish, and the brown 

 markings on the upperside are longitudinal or in the form of roundish spots, not 

 cross-bars. 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant {Ibis, 1895, p, 105) attaches importance to the "difference 

 in the shape of the wing, which, though mentioned by Schiegel {Mas. Pays-Bas, ii., 

 Asturea, pp. 32-33, 1802), has been overlooked by subsequent writers." He con- 

 tinues that in A. gularis the fourth primary is considerably longer than the fifth, 

 while in A. virgatus and its allied forms the fourth quill is only slightly longer 

 than the fifth. I find, however, tliat this character varies considerably and is 

 therefore not reliable. 



Mr. Grant apparently overlooked that Schiegel wrote more fully on these 

 hawks in 1873 {Accipitres, p. 75). There he united gularis and virgatus, thus 

 clearly showing that he did not consider his former statements to be of any value. 



Aceipiter affinis appears to inhabit the Himalayas. It is found also in Formosa 

 and Hainan, but it appears to be a winter visitor on these islands, and probably 

 migrates down from the Himalayas in the cold season. 



3. Aceipiter gularis (Temm. & Schleg.). 



Astur rjularis Temminck and Schiegel, SiebokVa Fauna Japoiiica, Area, p. 5, pi. 2 (1844* — 



Japan). 

 AccijiiUr niisoides BIyth, Jmirn. Ax. Soi: Bfiir/al xvi, p. 727 (1847 — Malacca !). 

 Ardjiiler utevens'iiu Gurney, Ihis 1803. p. 447, pi. xi (China). 



This liawk appears to be quite distinct from buth virgatus and affinis — and 

 I think for the present it should be treated as a species, though it might be a 

 subspecies of ^1. virgatus, but not of affinis. 



The adnlt males are rather variable in the coloration of the under-surface, 

 the latter being eitlier greyish white with a creamy or buff tinge, or reddish fawn- 

 coloured, sometimes even bright fawn, and the bars are either very distinct and of 

 a greyish brown or obsolete. The throat is always entirely unbarred, the feathers 

 along the middle having blackish shafts, forming an irregular narrow central line. 

 — Wing aliout 158 — 162 mm. — The adnlt female is of course much larger than the 

 male, and the under-surface is sharply liarred up to the throat, which is white, 

 unbarred, with a narrow mesial line of dark brown. It differs from A. affinis in 

 the barring being narrower and reaching to the throat, in the absence of wide 



* The first twenty-eight pages appeared in 1844 and not 1850 



