Notes on Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue 0/ Accipitrcs. 221 



Paris, in Mr. LevraucVs extensive collection sent to the Jardin 

 des Plantes from Caracas, where M. Salle and Mr. Goering 

 also obtained specimens. Mr. Wyatt met with it on his 

 journey into the Andes of Ocafia, and tells us that he found it 

 in the forests, at an altitude of about 7000 feet, at Portrerras, 

 and at two or three other localities between Ocana and Bu- 

 caramanga. He describes the iris as '' light red.'' The species 

 is also not very infrequent in " Bogota " collections ; but I 

 have never seen it from Ecuador or Peru. 



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

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



[Continued from page 96.] 



Passing on to the genus Polyboroides, which Mr. Sharpe 

 places at the head of the Accipitrinse, I may remark that, in 

 his description of the adult female of P. typicus, Mr. Sharpe 

 does not mention that the transverse bands on the lower parts, 

 and especially on the tibial feathers, are much narrower and 

 closer together in some adult females (probably very old birds) 

 than in the ordinary adult plumage of both sexes ; such a 

 female was figured and described as specifically distinct under 

 the name of Gymnogenys malzacii by the late MM. J. and E. 

 Verreaux in the Rev. et Mag. de Zoologie for 1855, from 

 a specimen in the Norwich Museum, which was obtained in 

 Nubia ; and the same museum also contains a similar female 

 from Natal. 



In treating of the Harriers, Mr. Sharpe comprises all the 

 known species of this group under the genus Circus, which 

 is probably a judicious course, as, although that genus seems 

 to be naturally divisible into distinct sections (probably four 

 in number) , it would be difficult to define these satisfactorily 

 without a fuller acquaintance than we at present possess with 

 such variations of coloration as are incident to the sexes and 

 successive ages of each species. 



It may be a convenient course, in arranging my observa- 

 tions upon the genus Circus, to commence with the British 



