Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue 0/ Accipitres. 153 



Mr. Sharpe's articles on H. severus, H. religiosus, and 

 H. lunulatus have recently been commented on and supple- 

 mented in considerable detail by Count T. Salvadovi, in his 

 ' Ornitologia della Papuasia e delle Molucche/ vol . i. pp. 33-37 ; 

 and I have no additional information to record with respect 

 to these Hobbies^ except to mention the curious fact that 

 both H. severus and H. lunulatus occur in the islands of the 

 New-Britain group. Dr. Sclater received from the Rev. G. 

 Bi'own an adult specimen of H. severus obtained at Kaba- 

 kadai^ on the coast of New Britain^ as recorded in the P.Z.S. 

 for 1880j p. 65 ; and he also received from Mr. Brown, 

 and recorded in the P. Z. S. for 1879, p. 447, a specimen of 

 H. lunulatus from the '^ Duke-of-York group.''' A second 

 specimen of the latter species has been subsequently obtained 

 at Blanche Bay, New Britain, by Lieut. Richards, by whom 

 it was transmitted to Canon Tristram. 



Two less important insular localities for H. lunulatus may 

 also here be mentioned. The Norwich Museum possesses a 

 specimen from Night Island, off the N.E. coast of Australia; 

 and another from Murray Island, off the south coast of New 

 Guinea, is preserved in the British Museum. 



The supposed occurrence of H. lunulatus in the Feejee 

 group, recorded in 'The Ibis' for 187G, p. 391, proves to 

 have been founded on a misapprehension, as Mr. Sliarpe 

 informs me that the specimen in question, when withdrawn 

 from the spirits in which it was immersed for transmission to 

 this country, proved not to be H. lunulatus, but a small 

 male of Falco melanogenys. 



I propose now to refer to Hypotriorchis eleanorce, the 

 largest of the Old-World Hobbies, and by far the most 

 remarkable as regards its mutations and variations of plu- 

 mage, which are independent of sex, and are due partly 

 to differences of age, and partly, as it would seem^ to a 

 tendency towards melanistic coloration developed more 

 strongly in some individuals than in others. 



The first or nestling plumage, in its medium and most 

 frequent phase, is figured in ' The Ibis ' for 1869, pi. xvi. A 

 similar specimen is represented by the lowest figure in 



