228 Mr. J. n. (jurney's Notes on 



8th January, 1875, " all tlie black-and-white birds dissected 

 by Tytler, Blewctt, Gates, Feilden, and myself (aggregating, 

 I suppose, fifty specimens) have been males ^^*. 



The specimen in the British Museum from which Mr. 

 Sharpe took the description of the adult female given in his 

 catalogue is, so far as I know, unique ; and the fact of its 

 being a female is inferred from its large proportions. It is 

 the same individual from Assam which was formerly in the 

 possession of Mr. Gould, and which was described by the late 

 Dr. Jerdon in "^The Ibis' (1871, p. 342) as ''a very large 

 supposed male of C. melanoleucus from Assam ;" and it has a 

 peculiarity which Mr. Sharpe does not notice, but which Dr. 

 Jerdon thus describes : " the pale grey colour extends more 

 over the carpal joint than in ordinary specimens, so that the 

 whole shoulder appears white." Mr. Hume, however, states 

 C^ Stray Feathers,' vol. ii. p. 34) that he has met with adult 

 males which also presented the appearance of the '' whole 

 shoulder being white," and that he considers this to be merely 

 " an individual peculiarity," It may be well to add that this 

 specimen agrees in the character and size of the foot with 

 ordinary specimens of C. melanoleucus, the middle toe, with- 

 out the claw, being barely an inch and a half in length. I 

 may also mention, for the sake of comparison, that in the 

 males of C. spilonotus the middle toe is from If to If inch in 

 length, and the foot and tarsus much more robust than in C. 

 melanoleucus. 



Before leaving the subject of Circus melanoleucus, I may 

 add that Ceylon and Malacca should be added to the loca- 

 lities included by Mr. Sharpe in the habitat of that species. 



I am now desirous of offering some observations on the Har- 

 rier from the Island of Reunion, to which the late M. Jules 

 Verreaux gave the name of Circus maillardi, and a presumed 

 male and female of which, obtained in that island, were figured 

 in ' The Ibis' for 1863 (pi. 4), the former being drawn from 

 the type specimen in the Paris Museum f, the latter from a 



* Mr. Hume, however, has met with a female in the state of plumage 

 assimilating to C. spikmotus. {Vide ' Stray Feathers/ vol. ii. p. 34.) 

 t Besides the type specimen, the Museum at Paris contains four others 



