BUTEO FEROX. 31 
skinned for mounting, or pounce from his perch upon any stray 
mouse that ventured near him. This bird we afterwards sent home 
to the Zoological Society, and after its death it passed into the 
collection of the British Museum. 
Upper parts brown, each feather having pale edges and a black 
shaft. Head, pale fulvous, streaked with brown. Wing feathers 
dark-brown. ‘Tail feathers fulvous, inclined to rufous, and narrowly 
barred with brown; the broadest bar at the tip. Under parts, 
pale fulvous, almost white on the chin and throat, streaked on the 
two lattér, and blotched on the former with brown. Thighs rufous, 
faintly blotched with fulvous. Vent feathers pale fulvous. Length, 
1’ 8’; wing, 14”; tail, 7”. Inides yellow. 
Fully adult birds become throughout of a deep rufous-brown, 
blotched with dark markings. In this stage they constitute Le 
Vaillant’s species, called Le Rougri, Ois. d’Af., Pl. 17.* 
It is a noteworthy fact however that Indian examples never put on 
the bright rufous phase of the African birds, nor are the young so 
white underneath. Mr. Hume (Rough Notes, II. p. 268,) in speaking 
of the Indian bird,.writes :—“ My own private belief is that ours is a 
larger bird.” 
Fig. Leyaill. (jun.) Expl. Sci. Alger. Ois. pl. 3: 
27. BurTzo FEROX. Long-legged Buzzard. 
Prof. Schlegel, in his catalogue of the Leyden Museum, gives this 
species as an inhabitant of South Africa on the authority of a female 
specimen procured in Caffraria by Van Horstock. Although the 
validity of this determination has never been called in question, 
the editor thinks it possible that the example in question may ulti- 
mately turn out to be referable to B. jakal or B. desertorum, which 
greatly resemble B. ferox in some stages of plumage. 
* The late M. Jules Verreaux was of opinion that the “ Rougri” of Le 
Vaillant is the 2 of Cerchneis amurensis. Mr. Gray in his “ Hand List ” 
separates B. desertorum from B. capensis, but Mr. Gurney writes, ‘In my 
opinion there is no specific distinction between them: the birds are undistin- 
guishable when adult, but when young the Cape specimens have often more 
white underneath, and some are also a trifle smaller.” He has also expressed 
his opinion in the Birds of Damara Land that there is only one species to be 
recognised under the name of B. desertorwm, though he does not fail to notice 
some differences. 
