14 CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OF PREY. 



not, in Mr. Rickett's opinion, distinct from M. melanoleucus 

 (' Ibis/ 1894, p. 223). Mr. Rickctt has observed that the 

 white spot on the nape in M. chinensis is, when present, 

 variable in extent, and frequently altogether absent, as in the 

 typical M. melanoleucus, or it is invisible until the overlying 

 feathers are raised. My father also notes that a M. melano- 

 leucus examined by him, shot at Jaipur Kairoop, had the 

 base and sides of one nuchal feather white, thus approaching 

 M. chinensis. It may be added that Mr. Rickett's specimens 

 have each about the same amount of black on the sides of 

 the body, a supposed character of M. chinensis (cf. ' Ibis/ 

 1875, p. 251). 



Krider's Buzzard (Buteo krideri, Hoopes), a very light- 

 coloured race of B. borealis, considered a good subspecies by 

 Mr. Witmer Stone of the Philadelphia Museum, where the 

 types are deposited, though very common in Minnesota, has 

 only been recently added to the collection at Norwich by 

 the liberality of Mr. Arthur Stark. Mr. Stark shot this 

 example on May 21, 1872, at Pelican Lake, Minnesota, and 

 it is one of those described in 'The North-American Birds,' 

 vol. iii. p. 284. The bird is very pale and the uuderparts 

 from the chin downwards are almost pure white. The bill, 

 as noted by Mr. Stark, was blue-black, cere pale yellow, 

 irides brown, legs and feet pale yellow, claws black. 



A large series of another American Buzzard, Buteo swain- 

 soni, which was sent to the Museum for comparison, collected 

 in Canada by Mr. D. L. Thorpe, contained a young bird shot 

 on Sept. 18, 1898, very darkly mottled. It shows what the 

 melanistic phase is at the age of four or five months, different, 

 I think, from any described by ray father ('Ibis/ 1889, 

 p. 134). The dark blotches are longitudinal, and the bird, 

 judging from its measurement, is not full-grown. I regret that 

 Mr. Thorpe could not spare this peculiar case of melanism, 

 but he has given us a nestling of the ordinary type, which is 

 very useful, as we are deficient in nestlings of all kinds : also 

 a clutch of five eggs of Circus hudsonius, taken on the banks 

 of the Souris River, Assiniboia, May 26, 1893. 



Mr. Thorpe's collection contained an adult female and 



