Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue of Accipitres. 479 



which may be the remnants of a still earlier stagc^ resembling 

 the plumage of the immature female. 



A young female is represented in figure C of Sir A. Smith's 

 plate ; and an immature hen bird in the Norwich Museum 

 agrees well with this representation in markings, but not al- 

 together in colour, being browner on the upper surface, and 

 exhibiting a decidedly rufous coloration on the dark mark- 

 ings of all the lower parts, except the undersurface of the 

 rectrices, 



Accipiter nisus is the only typical Sparrow- Hawk found in 

 Europe, whence its range extends eastward to Japan, west- 

 ward to Madeira, and southward to Northern Africa. 



The variations of plumage which mark the different ages 

 of both sexes of this species have been very fully described by 

 Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser in their article on this Hawk in 

 the ' Birds of Europe,^ since which, a male, supposed to be of 

 this species, but in abnormal and, so far as I know, unique 

 plumage, which " was shot on Tyneside in 1854," has been 

 described and figured by Mr. Hancock at page 16 of his valu- 

 able ' Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham.* 

 In this individual the coloration and absence of markings on 

 the underparts, from the chin to the vent, ajjpear closely to 

 resemble the adult plumage of A. rufiventris ; but in the fur- 

 ther peculiarity of having " no distinct bands on the tail " 

 the Tyneside specimen differs both from A. rufiventris and 

 from ordinary examples of A. nisus. 



Mr. Sharpe is not yet satisfied of the specific distinctness 

 o^ Accipiter melaschistos of Hume from the ordinary A. nisus; 

 and I have but very little additional information to offer 

 tending to elucidate this question j but I have had, through 

 the kindness of Lord Walden, the opportunity of measuring 

 a female of A. melaschistos from Simla, with the following 

 results — wing from carpal joint 10*5 inches, tarsus 2' 75, 

 middle toe s. u. 1"75. These dimensions are slightly in excess 

 of those of the largest female which I have examined of A. 

 nisus, a specimen from Foochow, in the Norwich Museum, 

 of which the corresponding measurements are — wing 10" 2 

 inches, tarsus 2"5, middle toe s. u. \7. 



The Turkcjstan Sparrow-Hawk, lately described by Severt- 



