3GS Mr. J, H. Giimey^s Notts on 



catiou of immaturity ; and as all the raelanistic specimens 

 which I have seen^ as well as those described by Mr. Hume 

 [vide 'Rough Notes/ p. 282), are thus barred, I cannot but 

 believe that they are immature birds^ aud not vei-y old indi- 

 viduals^, as supposed by Mr. Sharpe, 



At the same time it is quite certain that this melanistic 

 phase is not the ordinary immature plumage {vide Mr. Dres- 

 ser's description of a nestling from Smyrna) ; and I there- 

 fore look upon it as an accidental and abnormal variation 

 which, so far as I know, has hitherto only been met with in 

 Northern, and especially in North-western India, and once 

 also in Abyssinia*. 



Mr. W. E. Brooks, to whose conx'spondence I have been 

 indebted for much information upon Indian birds of prey, 

 writes to me respecting this dark-coloured form as follows : — 

 " It is a common bird in the Northern Punjaub, where it is 

 commoner than the red bird ; since it never leaves its north- 

 ern quarters, like the other, I believe it to be distinct from 

 B. fcroxr 



Mr. Hume, on the contrary, though he in the first instance 

 described the fuliginous form as being probably specifically 

 distinct {Toide. Ibis, 1869, p. 356), has subsequently inclined 

 to the opinion that it is identical with B.ferox, aud that the 

 fuliginous plumage is assumed (as stated by Mr. Sharpe) by- 

 old rather than by immature individuals {vide ' Rough Notes,' 

 p. 278, and ' Stray Feathers,' 1873, p. 159). 



It would appear, from Mr. Hume's article in the ' Rough 

 Notes,' that he does not take the same view as Mr. Brooks 

 of the relative abundance of the two forms in the Punj- 

 aub; but this may, perhaps, arise from Mr. Hume's ob- 

 servations having reference to a more southerly district of 

 the Punjaub than those of Mr. Brooks, and we may look 

 with confidence to the zeal and perseverence of our ornitho- 

 logical fellow-labourers in Northern India as a means of 

 clearing up, by further observations, whatever still remains 

 doubtful aiid obscure in our knowledge of this fine Buzzard. 



* Since the above wa;i iu print I have observed that the dark phase of 

 Jiiaeo ferux has been recorded by Severtzoff (under the title of ^. nigricans) 

 iis occurring and breeding iu Tiirkc?tan : vide 'The Ibi.s,' ]87o, p. 103. 



