356 A 
birds which, whilst IT was watching the couple, darted down and 
settled in a tree. The skin was sent to you from Allahabad.” 
The colouring, of different specimens of the Crested Honey 
Buzzard, differs so conspicuously, even amongst birds of appa- 
rently the same age, that I have thought it necessary to describe 
several specimens. Dr. Jerdon seems to consider the stages of 
plumage, at different ages, tolerably well characterized, but after 
examining a great number of specimens, the only marks by 
which I could certainly distinguish the older from the younger 
birds, were,—first, that the old have two, very broad, well mark- 
ed, dark, brown bands visible on the tail feathers, and the space of 
paler brown enclosed between them is freckled and mottled 
with a lighter colour, but not barred—while in younger birds, 
the tail is envariably banded, more or less plainly, with numerous, 
pale, narrow, wavy streaks, besides two or more brownish bands of 
darker brown, which broadish bands however are neither half 
the width, nor so well defined, nor so dark as in the old; and 
secondly a very similar difference in the banding of the prima- 
ries beyond the emarginations. All other signs of age appear 
deceptive. Year old birds have at times, the lores, cheeks and 
face quite gray, while old birds may be seen nearly white below, 
each feather with a conspicuous, median stripe of the darkest 
brown. Some young birds too are so dark a brown above, as 
in some lights to appear almost black, while the old are often a 
mixture of pale brown and grayish. The light edgings to the 
feathers of the upper parts are, (contrary to all analogy,) met 
with occasionally in the old, as well as in the young, and there are 
really very few points in the plumage of this species, which seem 
constant in a// specimens, at all ages. 
Capt. Marshall concurs with me in this: he tells us that “ the 
birds vary considerably in plumage even in the adult, as every 
specimen I have got was shot off a nest, and they vary from 
dark brown to almost white in the general ground colour, the 
commonest tinge being brownish ashy. I also noticed that the 
brown specimens, and the whitish ones, always had a distinct 
incipient occipital crest of black feathers, whereas in the ashy 
type there was never even the faintest indication of it.” 
This species seems to be confined to India, south of the 
Himalayahs, Burmah, the Malay Peninsular, Sumatra, Bang- 
kok and Java. I have never seen it recorded from Ceylon, nor 
have I seen any specimen killed at a greater elevation, than 
4000 feet in the Himalayahs, or even at this height, any where 
except along the outer ranges. It is very locally distributed in 
upper India, but the double lines of trees, that every where 
border our canals, throughout their whole length, are beyond 
