Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue 0/ Accipitres. 97 



females from 19"5 to nearly 21 ; while in the present species 

 they vary in the males from 17 to barely 18 inches, and in 

 the females from 18 to 18"5 inches."'^ 



With reference to the above passage, I may remark that 

 the preceding pages contain the measurements of one spe- 

 cimen from North-west India, one from Darjeeling, and 

 two from Nepal (all adult or very nearly so, and, from their 

 localities, presumably referable to S. undulatus), in which 

 the measurements of the wing fall short of the minimum 

 assigned by Mr. Hume to the larger race, — and also of two 

 Bengal specimens (viz. that from Moorshedabad, which is a 

 fully adult bird, and that from Bugola), as Avell as of Dr. 

 Jerdon^'s type of S. melanotis, from the foot of the Neilgher- 

 ries, which seems not to have been fully adult — in all three 

 of which the measurement of the wing is less than Mr. Hume's 

 minimum for the smaller race, as given in the above passage ; 

 but subsequently Mr. Hume writes, " In rutherfordi the wing 

 varies from 16*25 to 17*75 ^'f. On the whole, I am disposed 

 to think that /S. rutherfordi of Hainan may be considered 

 to be specifically identical with birds of similar size which 

 occur in some parts of Burmah, and probably also with the 

 race inhabiting Central India, and perhaps to be separable, 

 as a subspecies, from the larger S. undulatus, though neither 

 the structural nor the geographical limits of demarcation 

 between the two appear to admit of very precise definition. 



The measurements of Dr. Jerdon's type specimen of S. me- 

 lanotis, from the foot of the Neilgherries, seem to indicate 

 that a third and still smaller race may occur in some parts of 

 Southern India, and may perhaps prove identical with that 

 inhabiting Ceylon, for which the late Mr. Blyth proposed the 

 specific name spilog aster. 



I have examined fifteen specimens of Spilornis from Ceylon, 

 in which the measurement of the wing ranged from 15*1 

 inches to 16*5, that of the tarsus from 3"1 to 3*6, and of the 

 middle toe s. u. from 1*7 to 2*1 ; besides these I have seen 

 one in the British Museum from Newara EUia, in Ceylon, 



* C'f. 'Stray Feathers' for 1876, p. 358. 

 t Vide ' Stray Feathers ' for 1874, p. 147. 

 SER. IV. VOL. II. H 



