135 
and sides, bright ferruginous, the breast chiefly the centre, very 
narrowly and sparsely, and the abdomen and sides, regularly, 
closely and moderately, broadly barred with white. The vent 
and lower tail coverts pure white. The tibial plumes barred. 
rufous white, and pale ferruginous. 
There is yet another type of female, query, the oldest of all, 
I have no specimen by me ; but quote my notes made when I had 
one. ‘‘ Female. Umballa. Wing, 8°5. Tail, 65. Whole upper 
plumage a delicate, uniform, rather dark, french grey, white 
half collar (mottled) on nape. No trace of bars, except a 
dusky subterminal spot, on central, or outer webs of lateral tail 
. feathers. Chin and throat white, no trace of strizs or central 
stripe. Sides of head and ear coverts tinged ferruginous, breast, 
abdomen and flanks, feathers tipped and barred, rather widely 
apart with pale rufous.” I have been thus minute in these 
descriptions, in order to show how many usually deemed diag- 
nostic points. Number, size and position of tail bands, character 
of throat markings and indeed of the plumage generally vary in 
different individuals of this species. 
In all humility, I often wonder how many of the Accipiters of 
the Malay Archipelago, and is not their name legion ? would 
lose their present supposed specific character if really large 
series, such as I am endeavouring to collect of all Indian birds, 
were available. 
The shape of the tail is insisted on! Here before me lie a 
long row of A. Virgatus; some with slightly rounded, some 
with absolutely square, some with slightly forked tails. 
In the face of the doubts I entertain, as to how far many of these 
small Accipiters have been rightly identified, I can say little, 
about the real distribution of A. Virgatus, but I may mention 
that Mr. Wallace gives it from Malacca, Timor, Java, and 
Sumatra. Noting, that the bill is black, lead colour at base, 
iris and cere yellow. Feet pale orange yellow. Birds killed 
by Myr. C. H.'T. Marshall at Lahore and by myself in Kumaon, 
had the irides deep orange yellow. 
There is a nearly allied species, A. Gularis, Schlegel, A. Ni- 
soides, Blyth, that has of late years been the bugbear of all Indian 
ornithologists. I don’t believe that any specimen has been pro- 
cured in India (if even the species is a good one, and even that 
may admit of doubts) but every one is always writing that they 
have got it, and being told by others to whom they send the speci- 
mens, that their birds are Virgatus or Nisus. Dr. Jerdon first 
noticed a little Hawk known to native faleoners as the Khandesra, 
and surmised that it was probably Blyth’s A. Nisoides. Now we 
have all heard of the Khandesra, or as I believe it is more correctly 
