26 Mr. P. L. Sclater on Wallace's 8tandard-wing , 



that republic*, which are apparently referable to this species. 

 Whether Mr. Cassin's Buteo cooperif of California, founded on 

 a single immature specimen, is really distinct, is perhaps ques- 

 tionable. In Brazil and eastern South America, its place is 

 occupied by the nearly allied Buteo albicaudatus [Falco pterocles, 

 Temm. PI. Col. 56 et 139), which, however, never seems to 

 assume the deep-red back characteristic of the adult Buteo 

 enjthronotus. In the Falkland Islands, according to Mr. Darwin, 

 this bird " preys chiefly upon rabbits, which have run wild and 

 abound over certain parts of the islands." As to its manner of 

 nesting, I regret to say we have no information, the eggs having 

 been identified by being labelled as belonging to specimens of 

 the bird sent with it. 



As represented in the third figure of our plate, these are of a 

 greyish white, blotched and marked, principally towards the 

 larger end, with two shades of umber-brown . 



IV. — Note on Wallace's Standard- wing, Semioptera wallacii. 

 By Philip Lutley Sclater. 

 (Plate II.} 

 In accordance with the promise of further information made in 

 last year's ' Ibis,' a representation is now given of the beautiful 

 new Paradise-bird (or, as Mr. Gould terms it. Standard-wing) 

 lately discovered by Mr. Wallace in the island of Batchian. By 

 Mr. Gould's kind permission, our plate is copied from the figures 

 of this remarkable bird recently published in the third part of 

 his ' Supplement to the Birds of Australia.'' And by the same 

 gentleman's obliging loan of the typical examples, I am enabled 

 to give a few remarks on its structure and natural affinities. 



Mr, G. R. Gray, who first brought the Standard-wing before 

 the notice of the scientific world at the meeting of the Zoological 

 Society held on the 22nd of March last, agrees with the discoverer 

 in considering it to be a Paradiseine form " approaching most 

 nearly to the King-bird of Paradise" J (Cicinnurus regius). Mr. 



* See Proc. Zool. Soc. 1857, p. 211, and 1859, p. 389. 

 t Pr. Acad. Sc. Phil. viii. p. 253. 

 X See Proc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 130. 



