Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue of Accipitres. 275 



Myristicivora spilorrhoa, &c. I have faith in the collector 

 that he would not deceive me.^' 



The genus Microhierax is followed in Mr. Sharpens volume 

 by that of Poliohierax, which, for many years, was only 

 composed of one sparsely distributed African species ; but in 

 1871 the very interesting discovery was made of a second 

 species inhabiting Burma. The African species, P. semitor- 

 quatus, is nearly as small as the Falconets of the genus 

 Microhierax; but the BurmanP.ins/^r/M'* is considerably larger, 

 though also quite one of the smaller Falconidse. The cha- 

 racter of the plumage is curiously the same in both species, 

 the adult males being grey on the back, whilst the females 

 have the upper part of the back rufous ; but in P. insignis 

 this colour is brighter than in P. semitorquatus, and extends 

 to the head *. 



The adult male of P. semitorquatus is figured in Sir A. 

 Smithes * Illustrations of South African Zoology,' Aves, 

 pi. i., and the female or young male in ' The Ibis' for 1861, 

 pi. 12 ; both sexes of P. insignis are figured in the late 

 Mr. Rowley's 'Ornithological Miscellany,' vol, iii. pi. 103. 



It may, perhaps, be desirable to point out that P. semitor- 

 quatus, besides occurring in North-eastern and South-eastern 

 Africa, as mentioned in Mr, Sharpe's volume, has also been 

 observed in Great Nam aqua and Damara Land [vide Anders- 

 son's ' Birds of Damara Land,' p. 19). 



With regard to P. insignis, Mr. Hume's remarks on its 

 variations of plumage, incident to age and sex, and Captain 

 Feilden's on its habits (both in ' Stray Feathers,' vol, iii. 

 pp. 20, 2] , 22), should be referred to ; the article by the late 

 Lord Tweeddale accompanying the plate of this species in the 

 * Ornithological Miscellany ' should also be consulted. 



Still following the order in which the genera are arranged 

 in Mr, Sharpe's volume, we arrive next at the genus Spizia- 

 pteryx, containing a single very scarce South-American 



* It is a remarkable coincidence that a very similar coloration of each 

 sex, involving a corresponding difference between the male and female, 

 exists in a widely distant Raptorial form, Buteo erythronotus of South 

 America. 



