610 Lieut. C. G. Finch-Davies on [Ibis, 



baited with meat aud set for jackals. One I shot had its 

 bill and much of its plumage smeared with the grassy 

 contents of the stomach of a bnck or sheep. 



The plumage is very variable, and scarcely two specimens 

 are alike in this respect. The first plumage is undoubtedly 

 the pale tawny one, which, before it is moulted, often 

 becomes so much affected by bleaching and abrasion as 

 to appear to be a dirty white, similar to the lower figure 

 in Riippell's plate of A. albicans. From this plumage it 

 moults into a deeper tawny-rufous, the scapulars being 

 dark brown with central paler streaks, but the wing-coverts 

 and under surface unmarked with brown. As the bird gets 

 older^ dark edges appear to all the feathers of the head and 

 neck, lesser wing-coverts, and sides of the breast. This is 

 the most usual form of adult plumage, and is figured on 

 plate V. of ' The Ibis/ 1865, figure in foreground. From 

 this plumage onward I am inclined to think that the dark 

 brown edges to the feathers gradually increase in width, 

 the median rufous streaks becoming narrower, but I have 

 only seen one South African killed specimen in which this 

 has been carried to an extreme point : it is a mounted 

 female in the Transvaal Museum, in which the dark brown 

 has so far superseded the rufous that this specimen would 

 be described as being dark brown all over, with rufous- 

 tawny streaks on most of the feathers of both the upper and 

 lower surface. I should say, however, that this stage of 

 plumage was quite exceptional, and I have never seen 

 another, nor have I ever read the description of such a 

 specimen from South Africa, although in North Africa 

 I believe such specimens are not so uncommon. 



40. Haliaetus vocifer (Daud.). African Sea-Eagle. 



1 have only met with this beautiful species in eastern 

 Pondoland, where each of the mouths of the larger rivers 

 appeared to have its pair of Sea-Eagles, and where, seated 

 on some dead branch or snag projecting from the water, 

 their snow-white heads and breasts contrasting with the 

 dark green foliage along the banks, they looked very 



