196 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



said to have been found by Pallas*), nor to its occasional 

 presence in Northern China, as recorded by M. David, and 

 it leaves the question undecided as to whether the Pernis 

 which has been found in Japan really belongs to this species. 



The learned authors of the " Animalia Vertebrata " in the 

 ( Fauna Japonica/ at p. 24 of their volume on the ornithology 

 of that country, write thus : " Pernis apivorus ; cette espece 

 .... qui se trouve, suivant Pallas, quoique en petit nombre, 

 dans toute la Siberie, habite egalement le Japon, d'ou nos 

 voyageurs ont apporte en Europe deux femelles adultes, qui 

 ne se distinguent ni par leurs formes, ou par leurs dimen- 

 sions, ni par leurs formes ou leur organisation, des individus 

 tues dans les differentes contrees que nous venons de nom- 

 mer " (i. e. Europe, Guinea, Egypt, and Arabia) . 



Professor Schlegel, in his ' Museum des Pays-Bas/ Pernes, 

 p. 2, under the head of Pernis apivorus, has the following 

 entry, which probably refers to one of the above-mentioned 

 specimens : " Femelle, plumage parfait, Japon, Voyage de 

 Burger." 



I regret that I omitted, when at Leyden some years since, 

 to examine this Japanese specimen ; but Mr. Sharpe, who has 

 subsequently visited the Leyden Museum, appears to have 

 arrived at the conclusion that it is referable to P. ptilo- 

 rhynchus, as in his list of the synonyms of that species he 

 includes " Pernis apivorus, Temm. & Schl. Faun. Japon. 

 Aves, p. 24," which Captain Legge also does in his work on 

 the Birds of Ceylon, p. 89. 



Mr. Seebohm informs me that it was on the authority of 

 this item in Mr. Sharpens volume, that he stated in ' The 

 Ibis ' for 1879, at p. 42, that the Japanese Pernis " was in- 

 correctly identified by Temminck and Schlegel with the Euro- 

 pean Honey-Buzzard," and that he has not himself seen a 

 Japanese specimen. 



Mr. Sharpe also refers to P. ptilorhynchus <l Pernis api- 

 vorus, Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 341," which seems to in- 

 volve a conflict of authorities as to the species of Pernis that 



* It does not appear to have been noticed in Siberia by subsequent 

 explorers j vide Newton's Yarrell, vol. i. p. 124. 



