1919-] Hieraaetus ayresi. 171 



genus, which is doubtful). So that in my opinion this 

 species should be placed iu the genus Hieraaetus. 



Now as to the specific name. As is well known to most 

 ornithologists who have studied African birds, the Hawk- 

 Eagle described by the late J. H. Gurney (Ibis, 1862, p. 149, 

 pi. iv.) SLS Spizaetus ayresii, has usually been referred to as 

 the young of H. spilogaster. Now this description and plate 

 have always puzzled me, until lately, as since I had got to 

 know spilogaster in all stages of plumage, I had never seen 

 a specimen quite agreeing with either description or plate, 

 especially as I had never met with a specimen with a crest. 

 As soon as Mr. Roberts put me right regarding L. lucani, 

 as above mentioned, it struck me at once that here, very 

 likely, was the solution of my doubts about Gurney's 

 S. ayresi, and I became almost sure that S. ayresi Gurney 

 would prove to be the young of L. lucani Sharpe. I was all 

 the more inclined to this belief when I noticed in the late 

 Mr. Gurney's " List of the Diurnal Birds of Prey, etc.^^ 

 p. 52, a footnote referring to H. spilogaster, in which the 

 following occurs : "• The immature specimen figured under 

 the incorrect appellation of Spizaetus ayresi in the 'Ibis^ for 

 1862 is one of those in the Norwich Museum. The type- 

 specimen of LopJiotriorchis lucani of Sharpe and Bouvier, 

 which is preserved in the British Museum, also seems to me 

 to be a young N. spilogaster " (the italics are mine), from 

 which it appeared to me that Mr. Gurney had noticed that 

 his S. ayresi and Sharpens lucani were identical. 



However, my doubts were quite set at rest when I received 

 a young specimen of L. lucani from Graliamstown, now 

 in the Albany Museum, which agreed perfectly with both 

 Gurney's description and plate. And therefore, as Gurney's 

 name has considerable priority over that of Sharpe and 

 Bouvier, I have great pleasure in restoring it to this hand- 

 some little Eagle, especially as the late Mr. J. H. Gurney, as 

 well as being one of tlie original members of our Union, 

 was our best authority on the birds of prey, and Mr. Tom 

 Ayres, after whom this Eagle was nauied, was one of our 



