156 Mr. J. H. Gurney^s Notes on 



torily settled ; but in connexion witli it I may mention that 

 a bright-coloured hobby-like male which I kept in confine- 

 ment between six and seven years^ as recorded in 'The Ibis ' 

 for 18G7, p. 380^ certainly showed somc^ though but a very 

 slight, tendency towards the assumption of fuliginous tints, 

 in the extension both in length and breadth of the dark 

 centres to the feathers on the underparts, especially on 

 the flanks, and in the edges of these dark centres becoming 

 less sharply defined. I think also that the colouring of the 

 rufous plumage of the lower parts became a little duller. 



Whether the next (that is, the fuliginous) stage is ultimately 

 attained by every individual, or only by those possessing a 

 melanistic tendency, is therefore a point which I think is still 

 doubtful ; but it seems tolerably certain that such individvials 

 as attain it do so gradually, the fuliginous colour becoming 

 more uniform and probably also more deeply tinted as the 

 age of the bird increases. A figure of the earlier fuliginous 

 stage, copied from that in Bonaparte's ' Fauna Italica,' is 

 given in the first edition of Breeds ' Birds of Europe,' vol. i. 

 p. 44; and the second edition of that work, vol. i. p. 47, con- 

 tains the representation of a slightly more advanced specimen, 

 a female from Sardinia. A less satisfactory figure of an indi- 

 vidual apparently in similar plumage is given on j)late 53 of 

 Schlegel and SusemihFs volume already referred to. Lastly, 

 the most uniform and deeply tinted plumage of this variable 

 species is represented in the same work, pi. 54. fig. 3, also in 

 Dresser's 'Birds of Europe,' pi. 383, from a Sardinian male, 

 and in the second edition of Bree's ' Birds of Europe,' vol. i. 

 p. 43, from a male and female also killed in Sardinia, re- 

 specting which Dr. Bree remarks that the plate '' shows a 

 very old male and female quite black; there are no traces of 

 bars on the under surface of the tail of the male, and very 

 slight ones on that of the female." I must, however, add. 

 that I have never seen a sj)ecimen which I should myself call 

 absolutely black, but only dark brown, and that with some- 

 times a decided shade of grey on the concealed portions of 

 the scapulars : this grey tint would probably, when the bird 

 had newly moulted, be apparent also on the exposed portions 



