Letters, Announcements, §c. 233 



been hitherto recorded in any work with which I am ac- 

 quainted. The difficulty has been principally with the fe- 

 males and young of the Hen, the Pallid, and Montague's 

 Harriers ; but I will go through the group. 



C. aruginosus (Linn.) . There is little danger of mistaking 

 this species in any stage; but I may remark that the outer 

 web of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th primaries is emarginated. 



C. cyaneus (Linn.) has also the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th 

 primaries emarginated on the outer web. This formation of 

 the 5th primary would appear to be characteristic of nearly 

 all the Harriers ; it appears in specimens labelled C. ranivorus, 

 C. assimilis, C. wolfii, C. spilonotus, C. hudsonius, C. melano- 

 leucus in the British Museum, and doubtless in others which 

 I have not been able to examine. But as regards the two 

 remaining European species, C. sivainsonii, Smith (C.pallidus, 

 Sykes), has the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th primaries, but not the 5th ; 

 and the same holds good of C. cineraceus, Mont. 



Hence it follows that C. cyaneus can by no possibility be 

 confounded with either of these two species, which in the 

 formation of the 5th primary seem to stand apart from any 

 others. Having thus reduced the elements of confusion to 

 two species, let us apply another test, which this time will be 

 found in the 2nd primary. In C. sivainsonii the emargination 

 of the 2nd primary begins on a level with the wing- coverts, 

 so that the bulge or widening of the outer web is almost or 

 entirely hidden ; but in C. cineraceus this emargination com- 

 mences nearly or quite an inch below the line of these coverts, 

 and the bulge is visible at a glance. There are other points 

 of distinction, such as the length of the 3rd primary, which 

 is relatively longer in C. cineraceus than in C. swainsonii ; but 

 where the wings are abraded this is often not available ; and, 

 indeed, the number of errors which I have discovered in the 

 course of working out this point, in the labels of the speci- 

 mens I have examined from various collections, would suffice 

 to show that the rules hitherto laid down have not been in- 

 fallible. No dependence can be placed upon the sexes and 

 labels of immature birds from the Volga, many of which seem 

 to have been designated C. cyaneus, C. pallidus, or C. cine- 



SER. III. — VOL. III. R 



