Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitres. 223 



Scilly Islands, which proved on dissection to be a female, 

 having "the ovarium filled with eggs, but not much de- 

 veloped,^' in which " a decided tone of blue pervaded a great 

 many of the scapulary feathers,^' and the irides were " bright 

 yellow,'* as in an adult male. 



The subject of the sexual distinction of colour in the irides 

 of some of the Harriers is an interesting one ; and it may be 

 hoped that ornithologists in India, and in other countries 

 where various species of the genus Circus are more abundant 

 than in England, will avail themselves of as many opportu- 

 nities as possible of recording observations bearing upon it*. 



In regard to Circus ceruginosus, Mr. Sharpe's description 

 of the plumage of the adult male is very full and excellent, 

 though I suspect that it has been taken from a slightly faded 

 specimen ; but with reference to the coloration of the imma- 

 ture birds and of the adult females, some additional remarks 

 may not be out of place. 



The " creamy buflF " or luteous colouring of the upper por- 

 tion of the head is much clearer in what may be called the 

 normal immature plumage of this species than in the adults 

 of either sex, owing to the darker shaft-marks of the luteous 

 feathers being very narrow and often almost imperceptible in 

 young birds, whereas in those which are adult these marks 

 are always broader and more conspicuous. In most young 

 birds the luteous colouring forms a cap over the whole upper 

 surface of the head, but in some it is either entirely absent or 

 only represented by a few fulvescent feathers at the back of 

 the head, its place being occupied by plumage of a dark cho- 

 colate-brown ; and an instance is recorded in Hunt's ' British 



* In reference to this subject I may quote two notes on South- African 

 Harriers. In ' The Ibis' for 1871 (p. 148), Mr. Ayres records the iris of 

 a female Circus swainsoni as dark hazel ; in this case the sex was ascer- 

 tained by dissection, and the bird, which I examined, appeared to be in 

 adult plumage. In * The Ibis ' for 1874 (p. 359), Mr. Buckley records two 

 females of Circus ranivortts, in one of which the iris was hazel, the beak 

 being black, whilst in the other, which was no doubt the older bird, the 

 iris was light yellow and the beak horn-colour. It would seem probable 

 that in those Haniers in which, as in C. ranivorus, the sexes are alike, 

 both have yellow irides when fully adult. 



