Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue 0/ Accipitres. 147 



specimens from Bissao ; and the former collection also con- 

 tains an adult female obtained in January on the Rio Dande 

 in Angola, which appears to he the only example hitherto 

 obtained in the Portuguese possessions in Western Africa*. 

 In Eastern Africa, south of the equator, this species occurs 

 on the Zambesi, specimens from there being preserved in 

 both the above-named collections ; and the British Museum 

 also possesses an adult example from the river Shire, Its 

 occurrence in Central and Eastern Africa, north of the equator, 

 is thus recorded by Von Heuglin ; — " A young female was shot 

 at Bongo, in Central Africa .... Prince Paul of Wiirtem- 

 berg killed an old male in 1840 on the Blue Nile, rathei" 

 below the 12tli degree, between Rozeres and Fazogl ; I re-^ 

 ceived this species from the Quola of West Abyssinia, from 

 the Eudj Mountains, from Bahr el Djebel, and from Bahr 

 Ghazal ; .... I am unable to say whether it is resident ; but 

 I met with it throughout the year, except from June to 

 August ^'t 



Mr. Sharpe correctly describes the usual phases of plu- 

 mage incident to this species ; but the Norwich Museum pos- 

 sesses a specimen obtained on the Zambesi by tlie late Dr. 

 Dickinson, which is evidently in immature dress, with the ex- 

 ception of a few recently acquired adult feathers in the wings 

 and tail, but which differs from the ordinary immature plu- 

 mage in having the whole of the head, neck, and lower parts 

 of a dark brown, corresponding with the darker portions of 

 the mantle, and only varied by paler tips to the feathers of 

 the side-neck and throat, and by decidedly white tips to 

 those of the tibiae and under tail-coverts, also by the mingling 

 of a considerable portion of white with the brown of the 

 wing-linings J , It should likewise be noted that in this spe- 

 cimen the dark feathers of the underparts have no white 

 bases. 



The only figure of this species in fully adult plumage which 

 adequately represents the grey tint peculiar to the old bird 



* Conf. ])\i Bocage's ' Ornitliologie d'Angola/ p. 39. 

 t Vide Ornithologie Nordost-Afrika's, vol. i. pp. 87, 88. 

 X The wing-linings are entirely white in the fully adult bird, 



M 2 



