Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue 0/ Accipitres. 159 



of Smith) iu its progress from the nestling-plumage to the 

 fully adult dress. 



In addition to the phases of plumage to which I have above 

 alluded, South-African specimens occur the plumage of which 

 is fuliginous above and below, but with white bases to the 

 feathers of the under surface, and with the wing-linings partly 

 fuliginous and partly white, Mr. Sharpe terms this plumage 

 " mature ; '' but if this phrase is intended to imply that every 

 individual at a certain age attains it, I must express my dis- 

 sent from such a conclusion, as I believe it to be an ex- 

 ceptional and quasi-melanistic variety, if, indeed, it be not 

 referable, as Riippell, Schlegel, and Von Heuglin suppose, to 

 a distinct species and, as such, specially entitled to have the 

 specific name of cinereus. 



In MM. Verreaux and des Murs^s notice of " Circaetus 

 thoracicus/' at -p. 209 of 'The Ibis^ for 1862, reference is 

 made to dark-coloured nestlings in the following words (pro- 

 bably based on information obtained by the late Jules Ver- 

 reaux dm'ing his travels in South Africa) : — "le jeune, au 

 sortir du nid, est en effet bj'un-enfume.'' 



That rufescent nestlings of C. pectoralis also occur is cer- 

 tain ; and Sir A. Smith, in his account of that species, from 

 which I have already quoted, appears to refer to two dis- 

 tinct phases of nesthng-plumage, describing them as " uni- 

 form light chestnut or a dull earthy brown." I therefore 

 doubt not that the fuliginous specimens, which sometimes 

 occur, have worn that garb from the time of leaving the nest, 

 and have never passed through the fulvous or rufescent stage 

 by which other nestlings are distinguished — and that this 

 is equally true, whether they are iu reality a melanistic phase 

 of C. pectoralis or specifically distinct. 



It would seem that the white bases to the feathers of the 

 underparts do not exist in all fuliginous specimens, as I have 

 seen three such in which, they are absent : two of these, from 

 Nubia and Bissao respectively, are preserved in the Norwich 

 Museum, and are the only specimens of C. cinereus which 

 I have recently been able to examine from any locality north 

 of the equator ; the third is from the Humbe, in Southern 



