01 ACCIPITEES. 



fulvous ; under -ning-coverts rich creamy buff, the lower ones 

 and axillaries marked with brown ; cere and orbits pale bluish 

 lead-colour ; feet very light lead-colour ; iris very dark brown. 

 Total length 15"3 inches, culmen I'l, wing 13, tail 8, tarsus 

 2-5." 



Adult female. Similar to the male. Total length 19"5 inche.s, 

 wing 157, tail 9', tarsus 2'1, bill from base of cere 1"1, from 

 centre of nostril 09, culmen 1"3. 



Younrj. " Warmer and more chocolate broAvn than the adult, 

 from which they are at once distinguished by the brown on the 

 under parts, which in the nestling covers the whole of the breast, 

 and as the bird advances in age gradually disappears, leaving the 

 chest striped with brown, and the flanks much spotted with 

 fulvous ; throat and sides of the face ochraceous buff ; forehead 

 very indistinctly indicated, the moustache and feathers below the 

 eye and behind the ear-coverts deep chocolate, and broader than 

 in the adult's ; feathers of the upper surface edged with rufous, 

 and spotted 'and half-barred with the same colour, the b.ars on the 

 tail a little narrower and more rufous that the adult's."* 



I have before me a pair of young birds which differ so con- 

 siderably from what have previously been described as the young 

 of the species that I shall here describe them in full : — 



Young. All the upper surface dull dark brown, all the feathers 

 conspicuously margined at the tips with rufous, being deepest in 

 tiut on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; feathers on the head 

 centered with a blackish shaft-stripe ; forehead and line over the 

 eye buff ; round the back of the neck from the ear-coverts a well- 

 defined broad collar of buffy white ; immediately behind the eye 

 and extending over the upper portion of the ear-coverts a patch 

 of white pencilled with blackish shaft-lines ; hind portion of the 

 ear-coverts blackish brown, with rufous margins, lower portion of 

 the ear-coverts, throat, sides of the neck, and chest, rich buff"; a 

 nari'ow black moustarehial stripe extending from the lores on 

 either side of the throat to opposite the ear-coverts ; all the 

 under surface rich bufl", lighter on the abdomen and under 

 tail-coverts ; the sides, flanks, outer portion of the thighs 

 blackish brown, margined with rufous-bufO ; a few of the 

 feathers on the breast and chest having a brown shaft-line 

 widening into a triangular mark at the tips ; under surface of 

 the tail brown, margined at tips with buff, and barred with light 



* I liave here given Mr. Shai-jie's descriptions, as tliey have in all pvobabilily been taken 

 from the type specimens, or from others carefully comfjared with the types of this species, 

 for although I have examined a lartre series of both adults and youiiy of both sexes from 

 various parts of Australia, widely separated, I cannot find any wliich coincide either with 

 5Ir. Gould's description of the adults, or with that ^nven by Mr. Sharpe in the British 

 Museum Catalogue, neither of these agreeing with such birds' as, until further proof to the 

 contrarj', I must consider to be the adults. 



