APPENDIX E. 137 



Mr. Hume, in ' Stray Feathers/ vol. iv. p. 364, gives 

 measurements of B. ferox which yield the following results 

 deduced from 94 sexed specimens, showing that it is, on the 

 average, somewhat inferior in size to B. leucocephalus : — 



Wing. Tarsus. 



in. in. in. in. 



Males 16-25 to 17-75 3-20 to 3-75 



Females 18-00 to 19-25 3-20 to 3-80 



The occasional abnormal reticulation in the unfeathered 

 portion of the front of the tarsus which has been observed 

 in B. ferox occurs also, and somewhat more frequently, in 

 B. pliwiipes. I have observed in this species a complete 

 reticulation taking the place of the ordinary scutellation 

 in the following specimens preserved in the British and 

 Norwich Museums, viz. five from Japan, one fi-om China, 

 and one from Kashmir, and a partial reticulation in one from 

 Japan, four from China, one from Nepal, and one from 

 Northern India. 



A specimen of this Buzzard exhibiting the above peculi- 

 arity and obtained in Sikkim is referred to by Mr. Blanford 

 in the abis' for 1872, p. 87. 



I have, in my Notes, expressed some doubt as to the iden- 

 tity of B. plnmipes and B. Japonicus ; but I now believe them 

 to be referable to the same species, though it is remarkable 

 that the melanistic phase, for which Hodgson proposed the 

 specific name of plumipes, has never, so far as I am aware, 

 been obtained either in Japan or in China, but only in the 

 more westerly regions inhabited by this Buzzard. It is also 

 remarkable that though immature specimens from China and 

 Japan almost invariably exhibit a pale plumage, more or less 

 closely corresponding with that represented in the ' Fauna 

 Japonica' (Aves), pi. 6 b^, this pale plumage is comparatively 



' An exception to this rule is, however, recorded in the ' Ibis' for 1878, 

 p. 248, by Messrs. Blabiston and Pryer, who state that at Fujisan, in 

 Japan, " a young bird was obtained from the nest of a dark colour." 



