76 Mr. C. G. Davies — liandom ^otcs on 



that a specimen lent me by the authorities of the Transvaal 

 Museum had already got the blue head, with the exce]>tion 

 of a strong rufous wash on the crown of the head. Last 

 year I shot a very curious example which had just completed 

 its moult, and differed from the usual form of adult male in 

 having the blue head strongly streaked with Ijlack, as in 

 C. ri(picola, the breast, underparts, and under wing-coverts 

 strongly spotted with dark brown, and in having a few slate- 

 grey spots on the scapulars ; it also had rather more grey on 

 the wing-coverts than the average adult male. Another 

 remarkable specimen is a very fine adult male in the Trans- 

 vaal Museum, shot in the Pretoria district. It differs from 

 typical specimens in having the whole of the breast and 

 underparts quite uniform, without spots, in this respect 

 resembling C. peUnensis of Eastern Asia ; it is also a very 

 large bird with a wing-measurement of 10 inches as against 

 9 inches in average males. 



CiRCAETUS ciNEREUS. Brown Harrier-Eagle. 



Mr. Sclatcr separates this species, which has hitherto been 

 considered the young bird of the black-breasted, white-l)ellied 

 bird usually known under the above name, but originally 

 described by Sir A. Smith as C. pectoralis, and gives the 

 following reasons for this decision, viz. : — 



(1) Although in other respects the two birds do not 



differ in size, the bill in C. pectoralis is constantly and 

 markedly smaller than in C. cinereus. 



(2) That there seems to be no intermediate form between 



the two. 



(3) That Mr. C. Grant has found the brown birds 



(C. cinereus) ])reeding in this plumag(\ 



Through the kindness of the authorities of the Transvaal 

 Museum I have good specimens of both these ])ir(is before 

 me, and the differences, especially in the size of Ihc bill, are 

 very striking, even without measuring. 



I would, however, remark ihat Mr. Sclater is not \\m first 

 naturalist to uphold the distinctness of these two birds. Long 



