370 On the Ornithology of Japan. 



tail-feathers, with tlie wing 18 inches long. Both species are 

 very nearly allied to B. canadensis. 



CoTURNix COMMUNIS (Ibis, 1879, p. 28). 



I am nnahle to distinguish the Japanese birds from our 

 Common Quail. JMr. Blakiston has sent me a skin (No. 1G18) 

 which he calls C.japonica. This belongs to the dark-throated 

 form, which I take to be the adult male of C. communis, with 

 very few spots on the breast. Another skin (No. 2536), 

 which he thinks distinct, has a pale throat, and is profusely 

 spotted on the breast. This I take to be the adult female. 

 Other skins in my collection have the pale throat of the 

 female and the slightly spotted breast of the male. These I 

 take to be males of the year. 



Spizaetus nipalensis (Ibis, 1878, p. 201, et 1879, p. 41). 



The identity of S. orientalis with S. nipalensis may now be 

 considered satisfactorily proved, the former being the im- 

 mature bird and the latter the adult. A bird in the plumage 

 of S. orientalis was sent alive from Japan to our Zoological 

 Gardens, where it has moulted into the adult plumage of the 

 Indian bird. 



Platalea leucorodia (Ibis, 1878, p. 223). 



There can be little doubt that the two new species of 

 Spoonbill from Japan described by Temminck and Schlegel, 

 each from a single example, are referable to our Common 

 Spoonbill, which was found by Pallas near the Selenga river, 

 south of Lake Baical, by both Radde and Prjevalsky in the 

 valley of the Ussuri, a southern tributary of the Amoor, and 

 by Swinhoe on Formosa and in the neighbourhood of Canton. 

 Immature birds of the Common Spoonbill have the beak pale 

 and the upper mandible smooth, and the tips of the primaries 

 dark brown. In this plumage they agree very closely with 

 Temminck and Schlegel's original descriptions. By some 

 oversight. Dresser, in his 'Birds of Europe,'' has omitted 

 any mention of this important stage of plumage, although 

 it is both described and figured by Naumann. 



