South African Ormlhology. 11 



ago such well-known ornithologists as lUippell, Schlcgel, 

 and Von Heuglin gave their reasons for believing the two 

 birds to be distinct, and also pointed out another character — 

 /. e., that in C. dnerei(s the tarsus and foot were longer than 

 in C. pectoraUs. Another point is that, to the best of my 

 knowledge, C. ijectoralis has never been recorded from north 

 of the Equator, whereas C. cinereus has been recorded from 

 far to the north. 



There appears to be no description of the young of cither 

 species in any of the text-books on S. African birds. The 

 young of C. cinereus appears to be still undescribed — that is, 

 unless they are exactly like the adult ; but good descriptions 

 of the young and immature birds of C. pectoraUs will bo 

 found in 'The Ibis' for 1878, where Mr. J. H. Gurney, in 

 the course of a series of articles on vol. i. of the ' British 

 Museum Catalogue of Birds,' discusses the various species 

 of the genus Circaetus. Mr. Gurney thus shortly describes 

 the quite young bird : — " Above brown, with fulvous 

 edging to the feathers, broadest on the interscapular feathers, 

 narrowest on the wing-coverts. The under surface (except 

 the throat) is decidedly rufous and whole coloured, except 

 the tibial and abdominal feathers, where the feathers have 

 white bases, and most of them are also tipped with white. 

 Tail dark brown, crossed with five somewhat indistinct bars 

 of darker brown, the last bar subterminal, and followed by a 

 narrow whitish tip." 



From this plumage the bird appears to get gradually 

 whiter below, the flanks crossed with dark brown bars, which 

 ore gradually lost as the bird approaches maturity, at the 

 same time the upper breast becomes gradually darker until 

 it reaches the final black stage. 



In one of the later numbers of the ' Annals o£ the Trans- 

 vaal Museum ' a specimen of the European Harrier-Eagle 

 (^Circaetus galUcus) is recorded from the Pretoria district. I 

 have this specimen now before me, and, although agreeing 

 fairly well with descriptions of C. gaUicu.% I think there can 

 be no doubt that it is really only an immature specimen of 

 C. pectoraUs. My reasons for saying so arc : — Firstly, that, to 



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