232 Mr. J. II. Gurncy's Notes on 



of the Harriers inhabiting Joanna Island, Madagascar, and 

 Keunion ; and in the meanwhile I think it may be well to 

 record a circumstance which may have some bearing upon it, 

 viz. that, according to information furnished to me by Mr. 

 Felix Bediugfield, who presented to the Norwich Museum 

 two specimens of Circles inaillardi from Reunion, the Harriers 

 contained in the Reunion ^Museum were not obtained in that 

 island, but in Madagascar. 



In the arrangement adopted by INIr. Sharpe the genus 

 Circus is followed by Micrastur, under which head ]Mr. 

 Sharpe gives (and, I think, correctly) M. leucauchen of Messrs. 

 Sclater and Salvia (P. Z. S. 1869, p. 367) as the adult male 

 ofM. ruficollis; but the Falco leucauchen of Temminck appears 

 to me, by the figure in the PI. Col. pi. 306 (misprinted pi. 36 

 in Mr. Sharpe's catalogue), to be an immature female of this 

 species. 



I may add that I have never seen a specimen of M. rvfi- 

 coUis with the back of the head of a bright imbroken rufous, 

 as represented in Temminck's PL Col. (pi. 92) under the title 

 of Falco xanthothorax, and I suspect that the colourist may 

 have been inaccurate in this particular. 



The collection of Messrs. Salvin and Godman contains a 

 remarkable specimen of this Hawk from Brazil, apparently 

 an adult female, in which the throat, instead of being '' whitish 

 washed with rufous,'^ as described by Mr. Sharpe, or pure 

 unbroken nifous, as figured by Temminck, is barred trans- 

 versely with alternate bands of black and white, narrower than 

 those on the abdomen, but otherwise similar. Across the 

 crop, in this specimen, these bars also exist, but are there so 

 much tinged and blended with the usual rufous colouring of 

 those parts as to present the appearance of a rufous pectoral 

 band. It may be desirable to mention that Mr. Ridgway, 

 the author of the valuable Catalogue of the Falconidse pre- 

 served in the Museum at Boston, U. S. (at p. 40 of that 

 work), treats Falco leucauchen of Temminck as specifically 

 distinct from M. ruficollis, though, on the other hand, he does 

 not separate from the latter species M. gilvicoUis of Vieillot 

 and M. zonothorax of Cabanis, both of which Mr. Sharpe 

 considers to be distinct species. 



