309 
the year round at Barrackpoor, and that he believes it to 
breed somewhere in that neighbourhood. Dr. Jerdon remarks 
(in his Appendix): ‘ This Harrier, I have every reason to 
believe, breeds in Northern India. I saw several in Purneah 
in July, (some of them in a garb resembling that of the females 
of the other species) and shot one bird in a state of change from 
the female garb to the black and white ordinary plumage. This 
was apparently not a young bird of the year, for the tail fea- 
thers were much worn. Can this bird, then, have a double 
moult ? It would appear so, unless | was mistaken in consi- 
dering it not a bird of the year. If so, they have the ordinary 
female garb of Harriers at first, and shortly afterwards, assume 
the peculiar pied livery of this species.” 
The specimen referred to by Dr. Jerdon, he recently showed 
me, and I have little hesitation in saying that I believe it to be 
undoubtedly referable to C. Melanoleucus. We both agreed 
that it exactly resembled the grey-winged and grey-tailed, left 
hand figure, of Circus Spilonotus (Ibis, 1863, Pl. V,) but while 
he assigned it to this species, [ contend that either it does not 
belong to it, or that if it does, this so-called species is merely a 
form of C. Melanoleucus. Of this I shall say more further on. 
At present I would wish first to notice, that up to the present 
time, as far as I know, no description of the young of this species 
has been published. Col. Tytler was, I believe, the first to pro- 
cure the young, in the Ist year’s livery, a stage of plumage in 
which it much resembles the young of the other, already de- 
scribed, species,—I have therefore given (see footnote) full de- 
scriptions of the young, taken originally from Col. 'Tytler’s spe- 
cimens, but subsequently compared with others from Tipperah. 
In all stages of plumage, the males (for I have as yet seen no 
authenticated female of Melanoleucus), may be distinguished from 
those of Cyaneus, Swainsoni and Cineraceus, by the length of 
the tarsus, which averages over 3 inches, and in no specimen 
that I have examined, fell short of 2°98 (in a young bird) and 
in one (a fine adult) measured 3°13. 
IT am aware that Mr. Gurney (Ibis, 1863, p. 214) gives the 
average of the tarsus, in three specimens, at 2°87, but possibly, he 
says exceeds the first by 0°6, but in a specimen now before me, it only exceeds 
it by 0°3. The proportions of the quills therefore, vary considerably, even in 
the adults. The second to the fifth, as he points out, are conspicuously emar- 
ginate on the outer web, and the first four are notched, but somewhat. feebly, 
on the inner webs. The tail he gives as even, only the external lateral 
feather being slightly shorter than the others, but in some specimens, as my 
measurements shew, the tail is perceptibly rounded. These, however, were 
young birds. 
