Notes on Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue of Accipitres. 195 



His position in the St. -Petersburg Museum is now filled 

 by Modeste Bogdanow, who has lately published a work 

 on the Birds of the Caucasus, and whose recently issued 

 article on the Birds of the Black-earth Zone of the Volga 

 and its Central and Lower valleys contains some excellent 

 field -notes. 



XVI. Notes on a 'Catalogue of the Accipitres in the British 

 Museum* by R. Bowdler Sharpe (1874). By J. H. 



GURNEY. 



[Continued from ' The Ibis,' 1879, p. 470.] 



FROM the genus Henicopernis, which I last considered, the 

 transition is easy to that of Pernis, to which I now propose 

 to refer, and, in doing so, to allude first to the only European 

 species of the genus, P. apivorus. 



Mr. Sharpe does not mention the Asiatic range of this 

 species, and refers but briefly to the southern limits of its 

 winter migration, which extend to the African continent and 

 have even been known to reach (though very rarely) South 

 Africa and Madagascar. 



So far as I know, but one instance (that of a specimen in 

 the British Museum) is recorded of the occurrence of Pernis 

 apivorus in Madagascar, and but three of its appearance in 

 South Africa : one of these birds was obtained by Le Vail- 

 lant, and described by him under the name of " Le Tachard " 

 in the ' Oiseaux d'Afrique/ vol. i. p. 82; and the other two 

 occurred in Natal, as recorded in ' The Ibis ' for 1859, p. 240, 

 and for 1860, p. 204*. 



Several more northerly African localities where Pernis 

 apivorus has been met with as a winter migrant are men- 

 tioned in the article on this species in Mr. Dresser's ' Birds 

 of Europe/ where many details are also given as to its Euro- 

 pean habitats, and some relating to its Asiatic range ; but that 

 article does not refer to its occurrence in Siberia (where it is 



* One of these Natal specimens is preserved in the Norwich Museum ; 

 the other I have unfortunately lost sight of. 



