Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue of Accipitres. 467 



dark rufous ; the mantle and tail dark rufous, very broadly 

 banded "with black, and the tail tipped with fulvous; the 

 feathers of the breast and abdomen rufous, the former having 

 elongated black centres, and the latter being broadly barred 

 with black ; the under tail-coverts rufous, with dark-brown 

 central spots and creamy fulvous tips, thus very much agree- 

 ing with the descriptions of the plumage of the " nestling " 

 and of the " young birds " respectively given by Mr. Sharpe 

 and by MM. Milne-Edwards and Grandidier. 



As the bird advances from the first to the second stage of 

 plumage, the dark cross bars on the mantle become broken 

 up into guttate spots, except on the lower scapulars, tertials, 

 and upper wing-coverts, which continue to be more or less 

 transversely barred ; the inner webs of the primaries (which 

 in Professor Newton^s nestling are a whole-coloured blackish 

 brown) become edged with rufous notch-marks that merge 

 into similar Avhite marks towards the base of the feather, and 

 a grey tint, in alternate pale and dark transverse bars, over- 

 spreads the upper tail-coverts ; the under surface changes in 

 very much the same manner as the mantle (the ground-colour 

 being dark rufous, interspersed with small blackish- brown 

 spots), excepting the throat and vent, which are Avhitish, 

 and the under tail-coverts, which exhibit two shades of 

 ??rey. 



When the bird assumes what I conceive to be the fully adult 

 dress, the transverse bars often disappear from the upper tail- 

 coverts, which are then of one uniform shade of grey, Avith the 

 exception of small black shaft-marks, the grey also extending 

 to the pale interspaces on the tail, and replacing the rufescent 

 brown tint which previously distinguished them ; the under 

 tail-coverts become pure white, as does the entire under sur- 

 face, with the exception of the small dark spots on the breast 

 and abdomen, Avhich remain as they were previously, except 

 that they are now exhibited on a white instead of on a dark 

 rufous ground, the latter colour lingering longest on the upper 

 breast and flanks ; the ear-coverts participate in this change, 

 becoming white instead of lirownish grey, and all the notch- 

 marks on the inner webs are now white also. 



