160 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



Benguela, and is in the possession of Captain Shelley, to 

 whose kindness I am indebted for the opportunity of com- 

 paring it with the similar specimens from Nubia and Bissao 

 above referred to. 



Du Bocage, at p, 34 of the first volume of his recent work 

 on the Ornithology of Angola, describes, under the head of 

 Circaetus cinereus, two females, one from Maconjo, the other 

 from the Humbe, as having "pas d'espace blanc k la base 

 des plumes du dos et des regions inferieures ;" but I have not 

 observed any notice of this peculiarity in the writings of any 

 other ornithologist. 



I propose now to allude to some fuliginous specimens, 

 which I have examined, with white bases to the feathers of 

 the lower surface, and subsequently to the three just men- 

 tioned, which do not exhibit this peculiarity. 



(No. 12.) This is a specimen from Natal in the Norwich 

 Museum, which, in its general aspect, including the markings 

 on the tail, agrees well with the description and figure of 

 of RiippelFs Circaetus funereus [vide ' Neue Wirbelthiere,'' 

 p. 35, pi, 14) ; the three narrow pale transverse bands on the 

 upper surface of the tail, however, are whitish brown rather 

 than red-grey ("^roth-grauen ''''), as described by Riippell. In 

 this specimen these pale bars are lighter on the inner than 

 on the outer web of all the rectrices, except the central pair, 

 but the intervening and much broader dark spaces are equally 

 deep-coloured on both webs. One pair of rectrices are evi- 

 dently of more recent growth than the remainder, from which, 

 however, they do not differ in markings, or, if allowance be 

 made for some fading, in the coloration of the older feathers. 

 The upper tail-coverts are narrowly tipped with white ; and 

 on most of the feathers composing them there is also a white 

 spot on the outer web near the base, which latter is brown ; 

 on others there are two such spots, one on each side of the 

 shaft; while in a few cases the feather has no white on it 

 except at the tip. I may add that white tips to these fea- 

 thers, and also white bases, are usual in the adults of the 

 white-bellied race [C. pectoralis), but in only one such spe- 

 cimen (No. 11) have I met with similar white spots on these 



