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



men the eliange appears to be taking place by an alteration 

 in the colour of the feathers^ and not by a moult. 



I may add that I have seen a very nearly adult male of this 

 species in which the iris was recorded by the collector as being 

 yellow, as in the younger specimen described by Mr. Sharpe. 



Mr. Sharpe includes A. nigroplumbeus of Lawrence, from 

 Ecuador, among the synonyms of ^. ventralis ; but if it be 

 identical with that species, as it possibly may be, the type 

 specimen is one which differs in the plumbeous aspect of its 

 under surface from any example of A. ventralis which I have 

 examined. This specimen is described by Mr. Lawrence as 

 having the " chin and upper part of the throat of a dull ashy 

 plumbeous ; abdomen dark brownish cinnamon ; thighs and 

 under tail-coverts plumbeous, like the breast, but with an 

 intermixture of dull cinnamon ^^ [vide Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1869, 

 p. 270) . 



An adult male of A. ventralis from Ecuador, in Messrs. 

 Salvin and Godman^s collection, has the rufous colouring of 

 the underparts remarkably dark and rich, but without any 

 admixture of the plumbeous tinge which distinguishes Mr. 

 Lawrence^s specimen above referred to. 



Of the Sparrow-Hawks peculiar to the African continent, 

 I consider that only two belong to the most typical group, 

 viz. A. ovampensis, which I have already described {antea, 

 p. 367), and A. rufiventris, with reference to which I may 

 mention a curious resemblance that it bears in one respect to 

 A. ovampensis, viz. in having three yellowish white spots on 

 the shafts of the rectrices between the dark transverse bars 

 on the upper surface of the tail. In A. rufiventris these 

 white spots are limited to the shafts of the feathers, and do 

 not, as in ^. ovampensis, extend to the adjacent webs. 



As Mr. Sharpe does not describe the immature plumage 

 of A. rufiventris, I may point out that the young male is cor- 

 rectly figured in Temminck^s ' Planches Col/ pi. 496 (though 

 the lettering at the foot of the plate inaccurately describes 

 the specimen as ''male adulte^^), and also in Smithes 'Illus- 

 trations of the Zoology of South Africa ' (Aves, pi. 93, fig. B) ; 

 but I must add that one of the young males in the Norwich 

 Museum shows traces of transverse bars on the upper breast. 



