Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitres. 355 



que les couvertures ; j^en ai tue cent fois et je m^en suis 

 assur^ sur la nature." 



Verreaux^s view appears to liave been in great measure 

 shared by Finsch and Hartlaub^ who, at p. 52 of their ' Vogel 

 Ost-Afrika's/ speak of the female of H. ecaudatus as distin- 

 guished from the male " area alari griseo-brunnea multo 

 majore." 



The late Sir Andrew Smith, on the contrary, when descri- 

 bing this species in the ' South- African Quarterly Journal/ 

 referred to the grey-barred wing as common to both sexes ; 

 and in this view he is followed by Mr. Sharpe, though not, as 

 I understand, on the authority of dissected specimens. 



Von Heuglin, who has given a useful figure of each of these 

 phases of plumage on tab. ii. of his ' Ornithologie Nord-Ost 

 Afrika's,' also appears not to have considered the banded 

 wing peculiar to the female, but seems to have been unable 

 to satisfy himself as to the true significance of this difference. 



Prof. Barboza du Bocage is disposed to consider the difier- 

 ence in question to be due to age, and remarks, at p. 42 of 

 his work on the Birds of Angola, "nous croyons, d'apres 

 ce que nous avons pu observer sur des individus vivants de 

 cette espece, que les remiges secondaires, d^abord toutes 

 noires, deviennent, avec le progres de Page, grises marquees 

 d^une bande terminale noire.^^ 



I cannot say that I agree with this view, as I have seen no 

 such change in progress in the living birds which have come 

 under my notice in this country, and as I think that I have 

 been able to trace in some of the skins which I have examined 

 a passage from the immature dress to the black-winged phase 

 in some individuals, and to the grey- winged in others. 



My own observations have been too limited to be of much 

 service in deciding the question at issue ; but, as far as they 

 go, they tend to confirm the view held by M. Verreaux, 



I have had no opportunity of examining an adult male the 

 sex of which I was able to feel certain had been verified 

 by dissection ; but I have examined four adults ticketed as 

 females, in regard to all of which there is reasonable ground 

 for believing that the sex had been so verified, and all of 



2b 2 



