130 Letters, Announcements, h^c. 



a narrow longitudinal dark spot near the upper portion of the 

 shaft ; and both show a broad terminal bar of blackish brown, 

 slight indications of which are also perceptible on some of the 

 other rectrices. Those feathers of the upper tail-coverts which 

 are nearest the tail are white ; but those nearest the rump are 

 black, with very narrow white tips, and also an irregular white 

 spot on the inner web of one of them. In other respects the 

 markings of this specimen appear to me to agree with those 

 of the Joanna-Island examples, 



I may take this opportunity of mentioning that Mr. Edward 

 Newton feels quite certain as to the correctness of the dia- 

 gnosis by dissection which showed the type specimen of Circus 

 macrosceUs to be a male [conf. Ibis, 1875, p. 231). 



Whilst on the subject of Harriers I may remark that in 

 'The Ibis' for 1875, pp. 226-228, I published some notes 

 on tlie various plumages of Circus melanoleucus ; as an ad- 

 dition to these, I now give some particulars of a Har- 

 rier of that species, obtained in the month of March iu 

 the Darrany district of Assam by Major H. H. Godwin- 

 Austen, and ascertained by that gentleman to be a female ; 

 premising that an ordinary adult male was obtained by the 

 same ornithologist in the same month and in the same lo- 

 cality, and that I have been indebted to the good offices of 

 Lord Walden for the opportunity of examining both these 

 specimens. In this female the feathers on the entire upper 

 surface of the head are blackish brown, with narrow rufous 

 edgings; those of the nape are still darker, and without 

 rufous edgings ; the entire mantle is of a similar tint, in- 

 creasing in intensity as it approaches the tips of the lower 

 scapulars, which are almost black. The general hue of the 

 mantle is apparently unbroken, except by narrow buff edgings 

 to the upper interscapulary feathers ; but on lifting up the 

 lower scapulars, the feathers which they conceal are found to 

 be grey, barred with blackish brown, which is darkest towards 

 the tip, and in places mottled with white on the inner web; 

 the feathers on the rump are blackish brown, more or less 

 tipped with white ; the upper tail-coverts white, with one, or 

 at most two, irregular brown spots in each feather ; the tail 



