Birds obtained at Madeira. 439 



principally birds. At the end of our stay I found that I had 

 got together a very satisfactory series of birds, a list of which 

 is given below, along with some notes. We had also obtained 

 a number of lizards and many examples of land and fresh- 

 water Mollusca, Myriopoda (including two specimens of a 

 new species of Geophilus), Arachnida, Coleoptera, Lepi- 

 doptera, and Vermes. 



The town of Funchal does not boast of a taxidermist, and 

 one is thus dependent on one's own exertions in the skinning- 

 line. Thus I soon found that, even by getting up every 

 morning at six and working for a couple of hours or more, it 

 was impossible to keep pace with the day's results. I was 

 therefore obliged to put a number of specimens in spirit, 

 and on my return sent them to Mr. Cullingford at Durham, 

 who returned them transformed into most beautiful skins, 

 quite as good as if they had been made from fresh specimens. 



A. Specimens from Madeira. 

 1. Accipiter granti, Sharpe. (Plate XIV.) 

 Accipiter granti, Sharpe, Ann. & Mag. N. H. ser. 6, v. 

 p. 485. 



The only specimen as yet obtained of this very handsome 

 Sparrow-Hawk was got by my friends Messrs. C. J. Cossart 

 and C. Hinton while shooting Partridges in October last 

 year. The former of these gentlemen showed me the skin, 

 together with some other specimens in his possession, and I 

 at once felt sure that it was distinct from anything I had 

 ever seen ; but never having made a special study of the 

 Hawk-tribe, I thought I could not do better than place the 

 bird in the hands of my friend Mr. Sharpe and leave the 

 responsibility of describing it or not to him. He at once 

 pronounced it to be a very distinct insular form, most nearly 

 allied to the Madagascar Sparrow- Hawk, Accipiter mada- 

 gascariensis, from which it is only to be distinguished by pos- 

 sessing rufous flank-tufts, like A. nisus. My own opinion is 

 that A. granti is the resident bird which breeds in the island, 

 and that the common Sparrow-Hawks obtained there are 

 visitors only. It has been denied that the Sparrow-Hawk 

 breeds in Madeira, but this has been proved to be incorrect, as 



