226 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



the article on Circus melanoleucus in his ' Scrap-book' (pt. 1, 

 p. 307), and the other in his list of the birds of Upper Pegu, 

 'Stray Feathers' (vol. iii. p. 33), as also to Mr. Swinhoe's 

 remarks on the same subject in his '' Notes on Chinese Orni- 

 thology " in ' The Ibis' for 1874 (p. 266). The plumage of 

 the immature specimen of this Harrier which Mr. Swinhoe 

 there describes, I take to be that which it wears on first leav- 

 ing the nest ; but it is to be regi*etted that the accompanying 

 figure, though accurate in other respects, has been coloured 

 with a slight tinge of olive-green, which, so far as I have ob- 

 served, never exists in nature in this or in any other Harrier. 

 The plate shows, however, the rufous edgings to the feathers 

 of the head, neck, and lesser wing-coverts, which distinguish 

 the first stage of plumage through which this species passes ; 

 as the bird becomes older these are replaced by paler margins, 

 which are for the most part quite white "^ ; but one specimen 

 which I have examined appears as though, if it had lived, it 

 would not have passed 'through this ordinary intermediate 

 stage, as in this instance the adult black plumage is unmis- 

 takably appearing at the carpal joint before the disappear- 

 ance of the rufous margins from the feathers of the head, 

 neck, and lesser wing- coverts. This remarkable example is 

 a yomig male from Malacca, for the loan of which I am in- 

 debted to the kindness of Lord Walden. 



The progress towards maturity is also marked in all cases 

 by the spreading of a conspicuous grey tint over the greater 

 and middle wing-coverts, and over the outer webs of the se- 

 condaries and of the upper portion of the primaries — all these 

 grey feathers, however, being crossed at intervals of from an 

 inch to an inch and a half by bars of dark greyish brown 

 about half an inch in width. 



After this change in the colouring of the wings has been 

 accomplished, the plumage of the back, which has hitherto 

 been a uniform brown (with the exception, in some indivi- 



* In one example in the Norwich Museum these whitish edgings re- 

 main on the feathers at the back of the head, though the central portion 

 of these feathers is black, and the remainder of the bird's plumage is fully 

 adult. 



