182 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. xiv. 



was also probabty of this species. Of the three obtained 

 the Suffolk example is now in the Norwich Castle Museum, 

 and Mr. Gurney, who has very kindly examined it carefully, 

 informs me that it is quite a young bird, very dark and heavily 

 spotted right up to the occiput and that he has compared 

 it with skins of A. clanga and pomarina, with the former of 

 which it agrees. It cannot be measured accurately as it is 

 unfortunately a stuffed bird in a sealed glass case. The 

 specimen captured at Elmstead, Mr. Miller Christy states 

 (ZooL, 1892, p. 76) is in the collection of the Hon. W. Roths- 

 child, but it is not now at Tring and neither Lord Rothschild 

 nor Dr. Hartert have any recollection of it. Mr. Christy 

 [I.e.) gives the measurement of the wing of the Leigh bird 

 as 19 inches (= 482 mm.) which, if correctly measured, is 

 too small for A. clanga. Of the Elmstead specimen Mr. 

 Laver remarked " from its size and markings it corresponds 

 with Mr. Howard Saunders's description of the small northern 

 race." It seems certain, however, that all these birds came 

 over together and it would be strange if the Suffolk bird were 

 A. clanga and the Essex ones A. pomarina. It is important, 

 however, that the Essex birds, if accessible, should be critically 

 examined.* 



lotht Female, immature, picked up wounded November 

 15th, 1915, at Brinsop Court, Hereford (W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, 

 Briiish Birds, IX., p. 186). This is in the British Museum 

 collection and is undoubtedly .-1. clanga. 



The Steppe Buzzard [Bnteo b. dcsertornm auct.J) 



This bird, which has been inappropriately termed the 

 African Buzzard and the Desert Buzzard, also (by Jerdon) 

 the Harrier Buzzard, as well as more appropriately the 

 Steppe Buzzard, was referred to in our Hand-List (1912) 

 in a note, but should have been definitely included in the 



* Mr. Miller Christy is, unfortunately, unable to give me further 

 information about these Essex birds owing to his books and papers 

 being at the present time inaccessible to him. 



f A Spotted Eagle captured in the North Sea about 140 miles from 

 the Norfolk coast on October 17th, 1907, was sent to the Zoological 

 Gardens and identified as A. maculata {=A. clanga) (J. H. Gurney, 

 ZooL, 1908, p. 131). Mr. Jourdain informs me that Mr. W. R. Lysaght's 

 collection at Castleford, Chepstow, contains a male and female Spotted 

 Eagle with three nestlings, and in a footnote it is stated (Catalogue 

 p. 79) : " All (respectively) shot and taken in England." No further 

 details are given. There is, of course, no reason to suppose that these 

 birds have ever bred with us, but the adults might possibly turn out 

 to be among those I have been unable to trace. 



+ The name desertorum, which is founded upon Levaillant's figure, 

 cannot be accepted, as the bird depicted is quite unlike this species 

 or, indeed, any other ! The next oldest acceptable name appears to 

 be Buteo vulpinus of Gloger. 



