Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue of Accipitres. 359 



Wing from 



carpal joint. Tarsus, 



in. in. 



S. pusilliis, from Joanna Island : 



Presumed J 5'7o 1*62 



Presumed S 5*5 1"8 



Presumed 5 G-2 2 



S. franciscte, from Madagascar, ascer- 

 tained by Mr. E. Newton to be J . . 6-2 2 

 Ascertained by Mr. E. Newton to 



be d" 6 1-9 



Presumed § 7 2'1 



The following description of the coloration of S. pusillus 

 in its adult stage has been drawn up by Mr. Reeve, the able 

 curator of the Norwich Museum, to whose obliging assistance 

 I am much indebted in these notes, from the presumed male 

 and female preserved in that collection : — 



" ($ . Head, neck, and the whole upper surface, including 

 the tail, slate-colour — the crown of the head, wing-coverts, 

 scapulars, and back being darker than the other parts ; the 

 sides of the neck somewhat paler, and dying away to a small 

 patch of dirty white on the sides of the upper breast. Throat 

 and whole under surface, including the under tail- and wing- 

 coverts, white ; the outer surface of the tail is slightly barred, 

 its lower surface (which is white near the tail-coverts, and a 

 more or less dirty grey elsewhere) is without bars on the two 

 central rectrices, but the three adjoining feathers on each side 

 show six very distinct greyish brown bars, whilst the outer- 

 most pair are scarcely barred at all. 



" ? . Only differs from the cJ in having the patch on each 

 side of the upper breast more deeply coloured with dusky 

 brown, and consequently more conspicuous ; also in the tail 

 being less slate-coloured, and more or less barred both on the 

 upper and under surface of all the rectrices. The under sur- 

 face of the primaries is also very strongly barred ; and the 

 slate-coloured portions of the plumage are, perhaps, a little 

 more brownish throughout than in the male." 



A third, nearly allied species, Scelospizias brutus, to which 

 I have already alluded, has, I believe, been at present only 

 found in the Island of Mayotte, another of the Comoro group ; 

 and from it we may pass to the consideration of the allied 



