482 Mr. J. II. Gurney^s Notes on 



birds of prey in the Leyden Museum, published in 1873, 

 unites A. gularis with A. virgatus ; but in his earlier catalogue 

 of 1862 he separates them, and writes thus with reference to 

 A. gularis : — '^ Voisin du Nisus virgatus, mais d\ine taille plus 

 forte, k doigts un pen plus courts, h la quatrieme remige de- 

 passant notablcment la cinquieme." 



With reference to this last remark Mr. Hume writes thus 

 in ' Stray Feathers,' vol. ii. p. 141 : — 



" Accipiter virgatus, Temm. A single specimen, a female, 

 which I refer to this species, was obtained [at the Andaman 

 Islands]. 1{ gularis of Schlegel be admitted as distinct, this 

 bird might stand under the latter name, inasmuch as its fourth 

 quill is considerably longer than the fifth, whereas in all my 

 twelve sj)ecimens from various parts of the Himalayas, from 

 Murree to Darjeeling, the fourth and fifth quills are almost 

 precisely of the same length.^' This rule, though generally 

 holding good, is not universally applicable : the Norwich 

 Museum possesses an adult male of A. virgatus, from Java, 

 in which the length of the fourth primary exceeds that of the 

 fifth by '55 inch ; but in two other Javan specimens in the 

 same collection no such peculiarity exists. 



On the other hand, in six specimens of A. gularis from 

 Japan and Formosa which I have examined, the fourth 

 primary exceeds the fifth in length, but the excess is very 

 variable, being in one specimen '05 inch, in a second '1, 

 in a third '15, in a fourth '25, in a fifth '75, and in a 

 sixth -8. 



The question whether this larger race should be treated as 

 distinct, is one which individual ornithologists must decide 

 according to their own estimates of what is sufficient to con- 

 stitute specific distinction ; but on another point connected 

 wdth the synonymy of A. virgatus, I ventm-e to think that 

 Mr. Sharpe is certainly mistaken, viz. in not admitting the 

 specific distinctness of Accipiter stevensoni, which, in my 

 opinion, undoubtedly is, as Mr. Sharpe, in a footnote, admits 

 that it may be, a good and valid species. 



Both the tarsus and the middle toe are, on an average of 

 specimens, decidedly shorter in A. stevensoni than in A. vir- 



