on Dr. Jerdon's ' Birds of India. ^ 245 



that catalogue (1863), however, INIr. Gray unites B. leucocephala 

 with B. ferox, and B. aquilinus with Archibuteo strophiatus, 

 Hodgson, the latter being decidedly identical with Hieraetus 

 pennatus ! The specimen which I described as aquilinus (J. A. S. 

 B. xvi. p. 176) was sent by Mr. Hodgson as his Butaquila leu- 

 cocephala ; but as it had not a sign of white about the head, I 

 suggested to that gentleman the better name aquilinus from its 

 robust form. Either this or B. plumipes can hardly be other 

 than Falco asiaticus of Latham. His description on the whole 

 applies better to the former, while the " half-feathered legs [pedi- 

 bus semilanatis)" preclude its identification with B, ferox. Both 

 this species and the next have the tarsi feathered halfway 

 down ; while in Archibuteo hemiptilopus (no. 49) the tarsi are 

 plumed to the toes in front and externally, and are bare and 

 scutellated behind. I suspect that both B. asiaticus and A. he- 

 miptilopus inhabit chiefly the Mongolian region, and should be 

 considered stragglers anywhere away from it. 



47. BuTEO PLUMIPES, Hodgson ; B. japonicus, Schlegel 

 (Faun. Japon. Aves, tab. vi. and vii. b). 



Mr. Hodgson^s specimen in the British Museum is certainly 

 of a uniform dark brown ; but most Buzzards vary exceedingly 

 in colour, and I see no reason why B. japonicus should not be 

 identified with B. plumipes, notwithstanding that Mr. Swinhoe 

 expressly asserts that the former '' never acquires the dark 

 plumage of the adult" of B. vulgaris (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 260). 

 Only that one specimen was procured by Mr. Hodgson ; so 

 that undoubtedly it must be considered an exceedingly rare 

 straggler within the area of his researches. My B. pygmceus 

 (J. A. S. B. xiv. p. 217), which Dr. Jerdon thought was not 

 unlikely to prove identical with plumipes, is the same as Polior- 

 nis polio genys [Falco poliogenys, Temm. PI. Col. 235 ; Faun. Ja- 

 pon. Aves, tab. vii. b, where it is designated Buteo pyrrho- 

 genys, lapsu calami, as also in Jerdon^s Appendix). An intei-est- 

 ing notice of this species is given in the Ornithological Report 

 accompanying the narrative of Commodore Perry's Exploi-iiig 

 Expedition to the China Seas and Japan. As many as four of the 

 Falconidte figured in the ' Fauna Japonica ' (as I identify them) 



