168 Lieut. C. G. Fincli-Davies on [Ibis, 



Hawk-Eagle, which I identified at the time as a small male 

 o£ Hieraaetus spilogaster, although with a considerable 

 amount of doubt, as it did not agree very well with Sclater's 

 description of that species (Fauna of South Africa, Birds, iii. 

 p. 299), and was, moreover, much smaller in every way than 

 the dimensions given, and in fact much smaller than an 

 adult female H. pennatus which I had shot a few days 

 previously. I was, however, more satisfied when, a year or so 

 after, I saw in the South African Museum at Cape Town, a 

 very similar but rather larger specimen labelled H. spilogaster. 

 In the meantime I had become fairly well acquainted with 

 the true H. spilogaster, and as I never again met with a 

 specimen agreeing either in size or colouring with the 

 Pondoland or Cape Museum specimen, I began to think that 

 either H. spilogaster was very variable in plumage or else 

 there must be another species occurring in South Africa 

 which had been confused with it. So when in Cape Town 

 in 1915 I took the opportunity of re-examining the specimen 

 in the Museum, and preparing a painting of it ; I sent the 

 painting and a description to Mr, Austin Roberts of the 

 Pretoria Museum, and asked him if he could put me right. 

 Mr. Roberts very kindly went into the subject for me, and 

 pointed out that there was no doubt that the Cape Town 

 specimen, and probably my Pondoland specimen also (which 

 unfortunately I had not kept) belonged to Lophotriorchis 

 lucani Sharpe, and also drew my attention to the fact that 

 L. lucani and H. spilogaster had been confused by Erlanger, 

 who, in the J. f. 0. 1904, had figured the former as 

 H. spilogaster and the latter as H. fasciatus minor. On 

 examining these plates I saw at once that the Cape Town 

 bird agreed fairly well with the lower figure in Erlanger's 

 plate of H. spilogaster. 



I now realized that here was the solution of my difficulties, 

 and, on thinking the matter over, decided to send descriptions 

 of L. lucani to the various museums in South Africa with a 

 view to finding out whether there are other specimens. 

 The result was most gratifying, as I found that every one 

 of the following museums, viz. South African Museum in 



