Birds of the PhiUjjpine Islands. 107 



As will be seen from these notes, the barring on the 

 underparts of the females varies considerably in colour — 

 specimens from Malacca, Sumatra, Java, and China being 

 more rufous, those from Borneo^ the Philippines, and Fuga 

 Island dark brown. 



The colour of the chest and breast in the male also varies 

 much. The majority of adult males have these parts pale 

 rufous or rufous buff, but some, such as the examples from 

 Cochin China and Timor and two birds from Malacca, are 

 bright rufous, while two examples from Japan are unusually 

 pale, one being pale grey with merely a tinge of rufous. 



I am unable at present to offer an opinion as to the cause 

 of these differences, but they may be individual and due to 

 food and condition. 



The type of Accipiter virgatus, Temm., is said to have 

 come from Java, but the British Museum collection has no 

 examples from that island. Temminck^s figure (PI. Col. i. 

 pi. 98 [no. 109], 1824) shows that his bird has the wide dark 

 stripe down the middle of the throat, and both the description 

 and figure agree closely with males from Southern India and 

 Ceylon. 



The large Himalayan form (which is also met with in 

 Formosa) is called Accipiter affinis, Hodgson, by Gurney, 

 and may certainly be considered subspecifically distinct from 

 typical A. virgatiis, on account of its larger size, browner 

 and much less uniform chest, even in the most adult females. 



It may be briefly described : — 



Adult female. Above dark brown, sometimes with a distinct 

 greyish gloss on the mantle ; throat white, a line of feathers 

 down the middle, with wide dark ashy-black shaft-stripes ; 

 chest mostly reddish brown, often mixed with dusky and 

 edged with white on the sides of the feathers, the general 

 appearance of the markings being lonyitudinul, in marked 

 contrast to the breast and rest of the underparts, which are 

 reddish brown widely barred with white ; the under surface 

 of the inner webs of the quills white. 



