472 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes 07i 



tipped with white, and irregularly spotted or barred with the 

 same/* These white bars and tips become less numerous as 

 the bird advances in age ; and the whole appearance of the 

 mantle in consequence becomes more imiform and more cha- 

 racterized by an unbroken slate-colour. 



The authors of ' Exotic Ornithology/ who figure at pi. 49 

 of that work a specimen of this Buzzard, observe that " in 

 very old birds it is possible that the white edgings to the fea- 

 thers of the back and wings, which are more apparent in 

 some specimens than in others, may wholly disappear. ^^ Such 

 is, in great measure, the case with the most adult example 

 in the Norwich Museum, in which the white edgings have 

 almost entirely disappeared from the mantle, and, with the 

 exception of about four of the scapular feathers, only remain 

 on the secondaries and tertials. 



It should, however, be observed that the small coverts along 

 the ridge of the wing, between the body and the carpal joint, 

 which in the immature plumage are slaty black edged with 

 white, are in the adult pure white for about half an inch in 

 breadth from the ridge, where they merge into slaty black. 



Mr. Sharpe describes the head and neck as " pure white ;" 

 but in the two adult specimens in the Norwich INIuseum the 

 crown of the head and back of the neck show a very fine 

 blackish shaft-mark on each feather ; in a younger bird in 

 the same collection these marks are broader, especially on 

 the nape, and for the most part of a browner hue. 



The next species which I have to notice is L. albicoUis, a 

 Buzzard nearly allied to L. palUata, but readily distinguish- 

 able, in addition to other characteristics, by the pure white 

 of its lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts. 



This species, which is figured by Temminck in PI. Col. 

 pi. 9, under the name of Falco poecilonotus , is there repre- 

 sented with the head and interscapular region of a pure white, 

 with the exception of a black supercilium ; but Mr. Sharpe, 

 probably taking his description from a younger bird, speaks 

 of the head (except the sides of the face) as " white streaked 

 with black,"'' and of the iuterscapulary feathers as black 

 '' much varied with white bases and margins, sometimes also. 



