Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitres. 469 



men ; in this bird new feathers are appearing on the mantle 

 of the dark hue indicative of adult plumage. A third speci- 

 men shows a similar appearance on the back, and is also 

 beginning to assume the rufous tail; in this example the 

 tibial feathers are white, much mingled with rufous. The 

 two last-named specimens are evidently in a state of change 

 from the immature dress to that designated by Mr, Sharpe 

 as the plumage of the " adult male.^^ 



Riippeirs plate of his " Buteo hydrophilus " (Neue Wir- 

 belthiere, pi. 17) probably represents two immature speci- 

 mens of P. augur — that marked '^ Fig. 2 '' being apparently 

 the younger of the two, and perhaps partially melanistic. 



There remains but one other species of the subgenus Ptero- 

 lestes requiring consideration, the South-African P. jakal. 

 Mr. Sharpe, in his description of the " adult male," has the 

 following sentence : — '' Centre of chest whitish or rufous 

 white, more or less mottled with black, being the remains of 

 immaturity, as also are the white edgings to the feathers of 

 the abdomen and thighs, and rufous on the under tail- coverts." 

 Having examined many skins of this Buzzard, and having 

 also observed it in confinement, I feel certain that the ap- 

 pearances indicated in this passage are not " the remains of 

 immaturity," but are characteristic of the fully adult normal 

 plumage of this species. 



Mr. Sharpe alludes, both at page 176 of his Catalogue, 

 and at p. 29 of the second edition of Mr. Layard^s ' Birds of 

 South Africa/ to the occasional occurrence of specimens of 

 P. jakal in which the underparts are entirely black, as in the 

 melanistic form of P. augur. Such specimens must, I appre- 

 hend, be very rare, as none such have come under my notice, 

 and as no mention of this phase of plumage is made by Mr. 

 Layard in the first edition of his work, though he found this 

 species " very common throughout the colony " of the Cape 

 of Good Hope. 



I now proceed to the consideration of the genus Leuco- 

 pternis, which has been merged by Mr. Sharpe in that of Uru- 

 bitinga ; but I think it more convenient to use both these 

 generic names as indicating two distinct groups, which are 



2 k3 



