APrKNDIX J. 151 



APPENDIX J. 



On the Changes of Plumage in certain Specimens of Pernis 

 apivorus. 



Towards the end of September and early in October 1881, 

 a considerable migratory arrival of Honey-Buzzards occurred 

 in Norfolk and in other counties of the east of England ; all 

 the specimens which I saw were birds of the year, and three 

 such, captured in Norfolk on the 24'th and 28th September, 

 were brought to me alive. I propose to record a few notes 

 respecting these specimens. 



No. 1 (caught at Southrepps) was one of the darkest 

 specimens I have ever seen, the entire plumage being a very 

 dark brown, with somewhat of a purplish gloss upon the 

 mantle, the irides being also of a very dark brown. 



No. 2 (caught at Filby) was a similarly coloured bird, but 

 not quite so dark as No. 1, and in one respect less whole- 

 coloured, the shafts of the breast-feathers being slightly, 

 though perceptibly, darker than the other portions of the 

 feathers ; this bird had irides of a dark lead-colour. 



No. 3 (caught at Trimingham) was a much paler bird than 

 either No. 1 or No. 2 ; its colour was a cinnamon-brown, but 

 with a slight variation of tint in the feathers of the head ; its 

 irides were bluish grey. 



The three birds were very indistinctly marked upon the 

 tail, the cross bars being least observable in the two darker 

 specimens. 



On January 25, 1882, 1 made a note of some slight changes 

 in all three specimens, though none of them had then moulted. 

 In No. 1 the scapulars had become slightly paler, and the 

 inner webs of the median and greater wing-coverts decidedly 



