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



built and, for the most part, larger species which are con- 

 nectedj more or less closely, with S. tachiro. 



To the first of these divisions belongs Kaup's typical 

 sj)ecies S. francisca, respecting which I have a few remarks 

 to offer. Mr. Sharpe gives Madagascar and Joanna Island 

 as localities for this species ; but it seems to me that the Jo- 

 anna bird is specifically distinct ; and as the name oifrancisca 

 was given by Sir A. Smith to the Madagascar race, I would 

 propose for that found in Joanna Island the specific name of 

 pusillus, as it is the smallest of its genus except /S. brutus, 

 which is of about the same size. 



Scelospizias jmsillus, which was figured in ' The Ibis ' for 

 1864 (pi. vii.), from a specimen in the Norwich Museum, 

 under the title of Accipiter francesi, differs from the true 

 S. franciscce of Madagascar in its smaller size, and in two 

 characteristics of its adult plumage, the first being the darker 

 hue of its slate- coloured upper surface, and the second the 

 earlier attainment and greater purity of the white plumage 

 on the breast and parts adjacent. 



In /S. franciscce these parts are crossed with transverse 

 vinous-brown bars, which gradually become narrower and 

 fainter as the bird advances in age, until they ultimately, but 

 (so far can be judged from a series of specimens) by slow 

 and successive changes, become so faint as to be scarcely 

 perceptible, though I have never seen a specimen, authen- 

 ticated as having been obtained in Madagascar, in which 

 they were entirely absent. In S. pusillus, on the contrary, 

 the undersurface assumes a garb of pure and unbroken 

 white on the occasion of the first moult in which the bird 

 loses its immature dress, as is evidenced by a specimen in the 

 British Museum, which, though it has nearly attained its 

 adult plumage, still I'etains a few brown feathers, indicative of 

 immaturity, on its throat, flanks, and thighs, but with these 

 exceptions is perfectly white on its under surface. 



The comparative dimensions of the two species will be 

 shown by the following rjjeasurements, all taken from speci- 

 mens in the museum at Norwich, except the first, which is 

 from that in the British Museum to which 1 have already 

 referred. 



