Mr. R. B. Sharjje'n Calaioi/at 0/ Accipitics. 3G9 



To proceed to the cousideration of another allied species, 

 I may observe that Mr. Sharpe identifies Buteo japonicus of 

 Temminck and Schlegel with B. phimipes of Hodgson. I do 

 not feel altogether certain that this identification is correct^; 

 and even if it be so, I cannot agree with JNIr. Sharpens view 

 that this dark form is the ''very old ^^ stage of plumage in 

 this species. To me it seems much more likely to be an ac- 

 cidental melanism, both from its great rarity, and from the 

 fact of its never having been observed either in China or 

 Japan, but only in countries adjacent to the Himalayah 

 ^Mountains — a circumstance which possibly may afi"ord a par- 

 allel to the occm'rencc, in a similarly restricted but more 

 westerly district, of the melanistic phase of B. ferox. 



Buteo japonicus, in its normal adult plumage, bears a very 

 remarkable resemblance in the coloration of the upper portion 

 of the breast to the adult male of B. siva'insoni of North 

 America; but in the case of B. Japonicus this peculiarity is, 

 I believe, common to both sexes. 



Some valuable remarks on the partial feathering of the 

 tarsus in this species will be found at pages 17 and 18 of the 

 ' Fauna Japonica,' which also treats at page 19 of the still 

 greater development of this peculiarity in another oriental 

 Buzzard, B. hemilasius, a species respecting which the learned 

 authors of this work remark, with great truth, " qu'elle tient 

 precisement le milieu entre les buses pattues et les buses 

 ordinaires." 



As specimens of Buteo hemilasius are very scarce in col- 

 lections, it may be desirable to record the following measure- 

 ments of a female from Shanghai, which is preserved in the 

 Norwich jNIuseum : — culmen from front of cere 1-35 inch, 

 wing from carpal joint 18*9, tarsus 3"2, middle toe s. u. 1*8. 



This specimen agrees generally in coloration Avith the 

 female described by jNIr. Sharpe, but has much fewer trans- 

 verse bars on the tail : the central pair of rectrices have but 

 four such bars, al)Ove which are three irregular marks that 

 do not appear on the other rectrices ; and some of these also 

 difier from the central pair in having only three transverse 



* See Dr. Jerdon's reruai-ks in 'The Ibis" for l^^l. p. 340, and Mr. 

 lUanford's in ' The Ibis " for 1872, p. 87. 



