Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue 0/ Accipitres. .317 



A very similar specimen to is N, from Morocco ; Init this 

 is probably an older bird, as it has only faint and very narrow 

 shaft-marks on the crop-feathers, and the bars on the centre of 

 the breast are more broken up into spots than is the case in O. 

 J, from Mogador, resembles N ; but the dark transverse bars 

 have disappeared from the centre of the breast and of the lower 

 abdomen, and have been replaced by black spots smaller than 

 those on the breast of N. 



M, from Tangier, is of a paler slate-colour on the head, nape, 

 scapulars, and interscapulars than any of the preceding speci- 

 mens; and the transverse bars on the under surface are also 

 somewhat paler and very narrow, even narrower than in E ; 

 they are interrupted in the centre of the breast, and are there 

 replaced by a few minute dark spots^ which is a phase of 

 plumage that I have never seen in the southern F. minor ; the 

 lower crop-feathers have narrow dark shaft-marks^. 



Every one of the above-named specimens is entirely destitute 

 of rufous on the nape ; but those to which I am about to refer 

 all show more or less of it. 



In B and L, both from Tangier, the trace of rufous on the 

 back of the neck is exceedingly slight and inconspicuous, as 

 the few feathers which are so coloured all have slaty tips. L is 

 an average dark bird as regards the upper parts ; but these in B 

 are almost as pale as in M, to which B bears considerable 

 resemblance, but with a larger space on the breast in which the 

 cross bars are replaced by small and scattered dark spots. In 

 L these spots are larger, and on the abdomen they partially 

 assume the form of bars. 



F, from Iviza, much resembles L : but the rufous tinge is 

 more apparent on both sides of the nape. 



B, L, and F are all entirely destitute of l)lack shaft-marks 

 on the crop, except a few very small ones next the breast. A 

 similar almost immaculate condition of the crop-feathers exists 

 in A, from Tangier, and in I, from Mogador ; the latter has 

 two feathers of the immature dress remaining on the coverts 

 of each wing: this is remarkable, as an immaculate crop might 



* I have a memorandum to the effect that specimen K (in the British 

 Museum) closely resembles .T ; but I have not recently examined it. 



