d13 
smaller than those described by Mr. Gurney. As matters now 
stand, either we must accept the mottled grey bird, as a stage 
of Melanoleucus, or we rust include Spilonotus, as figured in the 
Ibis, as an Indian species. It is just possible that Dr. Jerdon’s 
bird may be Melanoleucus, and although in plumage exactly 
similar to Mr. Swinhoe’s bird, nevertheless structurally and spe- 
cially distinct. This, however, is not likely. Ifsome of my 
correspondents would kindly procure two or three undoubted 
females of IMelanoleucus, the matter might probably be set at 
rest at once. 
It remains to be noticed that all this time, the bird figured 
in the Ibis may be a state of Melanoleucus, and not Spilonotus of 
Kaup at all. He describes his species thus, “ Head, black ; 
wings and tail, without bars ; beneath white, with black oblong 
spots on the crop.” He gives this species as from Asia, and 
places it in the same subgroup as Ranivorus and Afruginosus, 
which he classes as Buteonine types, while he keeps Cyaneus and 
Melanoleucus as Falconine, and Cineraceus and Swainsoni, as 
Milvine types. 
Col. Tytler tells me that “this species,’ (Melanoleucus) about 
Barrackpore (where he says they are quite as common, as 
C. Swainsoni is in the Upper Provinces) ‘ was always found in 
open ground, small brushwood and fields, not near jheels and 
swamps as in the case of Aruginosus ; also, that they are never 
solitary, and that where one is shot, several others are sure to 
be seen in the immediate neighbourhood.” 
The Pied Harrier is a truly Asiatic species; Pallas, or rather 
Sokoloff, who accompanied him, observed it in Argunj, Radde in 
the middle Amoor, at Mogotui, Akschinsk, and other places in 
south east Siberia. In China, it is common in many localities ; 
it has been sent from the Philippine islands. It occurs in Ceylon, 
Burmah, Assam and Eastern Bengal generally (extending west- 
wards at least as far as Mirzapore*) and although Radde rightly 
says, that like all the species of this genus, it loves widely extended 
plains and the neighbourhood of water, it has been found almost 
throughout the Himalayahs, from the valley of the Burhampoo- 
ter, right up to Afghanistan, where Griffiths procured a specimen. 
In the dry plains of Central and Upper India, it seems to be un- 
known, and it neither extends, as far as I yet know, to Japan on 
the one hand, or the Malayan Archipelago on the other. 
* Mr. Brooks says—“ I have seen it once on the Kurnouta, which runs into 
the Ganges near Mirzapore, and several times on the Balen river 30 to 40 
miles south of Mirzapore: I never saw it away from water.” 
