464 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



The new species, which is tolerably common in Kashmir, 

 is named after the discoverer, Major Jolm Biddulph, whose 

 services to oruitholoarical science are well known. 



XLIV. — Notes on a ' Catalogue of the Accipitres in the British 

 Museum' by R. Bowdler Sharpe (1874). By J. H. 



GURNEY. 



[Continued from p. 341.] 



My late friend Mr. G. R. Gray, in his ' Hand-list of Birds,' 

 included in his " subfamily Milvinse^-'"^ the genera Macha- 

 rhamphus, Pernis, Henicopernis , Regerhinus, Gymindis (or, 

 more properly, Leptodon) , Aviceda, and Baza ; but Professor 

 Schlegel, in his ' Museum des Pays-Bas,' associates the birds 

 comprised in these genera in a distinct group under the name 

 of '' Pernes,^' in which he is followed by Mr. Ridgwayf, 

 who, hovv^ever, includes amongst the Pernes the genus Ela- 

 noides, ranked by Professor Schlegel amongst his " Milvi." 

 My view on this point accords with that of Professor Schlegel ; 

 and I have therefore to differ from that adopted by Mr. Sharpe, 

 who does not admit either the Milvinse or the Perninse as dis- 

 tinct subfamilies, but merges in his " subfamily Aquilinse " 

 all the above-named genera, except Aviceda and Baza, which 

 he unites under the latter name, and includes in his " sub- 

 family Falconinse.^' 



The circumstance of Mr. Sharpe having placed the genus 

 Leptodon in one subfamily, and Aviceda in another, whilst 

 Mr. Ridgway {I. c.) , speaking of Leptodon, says, " this sub- 

 genus is so very similar to Aviceda, that there is considerable 

 doubt as to the propriety of separating the two " [i. e. even 

 generically), seems to me to bo a notable instance of the 

 different views sometimes taken of the same facts by the most 

 competent naturalists, especially in the matter of scientific 

 arrangement. 



All the Pernine genera consist of birds with relatively short 



* FiVZe 'Hand-list of Birds,' vol. i. p. 24. 



t Vide ' Studies of American Falconidae,' p. 152. 



