Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitres. 465 



Males. 



Mr. "Wallace {vide Ibis, 1868, p. 16) speaks of the colour 

 of the iris in the birds of this genus from " Malacca, Sumatra, 

 Timor, Flores, Borneo, Philippine Islands, and India '' (all 

 which he includes under H. indus) as " dull yellow,^^ and in 

 those from " Celebes, all the Moluccas, and New Guinea,'' 

 (which he refers to H. girrenera) as ^^olive-brown''; but 

 both are probably liable to some variations. Mr. Gould, in 

 his great work on the ' Birds of Australia,' speaks of the 

 irides in adult Australian specimens as " light i eddish yellow," 

 and in his ' Handbook,' subsequently published, he adds 

 that immature birds have " darker-coloured eyes " than the 

 adults. The adult bird from Percy Island which is preserved 

 in the Norwich Museum was noted by the collector as having 

 a " reddish chocolate " iris. Professor Schlegel, in his ' Valk- 

 Vogels,' p. 51, gives, on the authority of S. Miiller, the colour 

 of the iris in the adult as '^ brun clair," and in the young as 

 '^brun:" Miiller's specimens in the Leyden Museum were 

 obtained from Sumatra, Macassar, Amboina, and Western 

 New Guinea ; and his observation, no doubt, related to these 

 or to some of them. Indian specimens, according to Mr. 

 Hume (' Scrap-book,' p. 316) , have the irides " brown," and 

 those found in China are described by David and Oustalet 

 {' Oiseaux de la Chine,' p. 15) as having them of a " brun 

 chatain." 



