Notes on Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue 0/ Accipitres. 271 



1875, p. 384, pi. ix. f. 2). This bird must therefore stand as 

 Serphophaga caloptera,^ir. Lawrence's name being a synonym. 

 The position of S. poecilocerca and S. caloptera in the genus 

 Serphophaga is open to question, as their affinity to members 

 of the genus Ochthoeca is obvious. The last-named bird has 

 already been assigned to Ochthoeca by Taczanowski (P. Z. S. 

 1879, p. 233). 



On the Plate the type of T. spodioptila is figured (fig. 1), 

 and also the type specimens of T. humeralis (figs. 2 male and 

 fig. 3 female) , the latter obtained by Mr. Buckley near Sara- 

 yacu, in Ecuador. 



XXIII. — Notes on a ' Catalogue of the Accipitres in the British 

 Museum' by R. Bowdler Sharpe (1874). By J. H. 



GURNEY. 



[Continued from p. 124] 



The genus Harpagus would seem to be most naturally fol- 

 lowed by the group of oriental Dwarf Falcons, or Falconets 

 as they have been sometimes called, for which Vigors in 1824 

 proposed the generic appellation of Hierax ; but this name 

 having been preoccupied, has been changed by Mr. Sharpe 

 to Microhierax, which will no doubt be henceforward ac- 

 cepted as the title of the genus. 



In three species of Microhierax, viz. M. eutolmus, M.frin- 

 gillarius, and M. erythrogenys, there is, in some specimens, 

 a bidentation of the mandible, almost as complete as in 

 the genus Harpagus; but in most individuals the hinder 

 tooth is merely represented by a sinuation, more or less 

 strongly pronounced and sometimes scarcely noticeable ; and 

 it is a curious circumstance that this variation does not in 

 the genus Microhierax appear to be dependent upon age, but 

 to be simply a matter of individual peculiarity. 



I have not examined the bills of M. melanoleucus and of 

 M. sinensis, or of more than two specimens of M. latifrons. 

 In one of the last-named birds the hinder tooth was absent ; 

 and in the other it was represented by a sinuation, which, 

 though perceptible, could not properly be called a tooth. 



