1875.] ORNITHOLOGY OF MADAGASCAR. 7\ 
Family Fatconip2. 
Subfamily AccrriTRinz. 
Circus MAcrosceLis, A. Newton; Sharpe, Cat. B. i. p. 73. 
The British Museum has recently acquired from Mr. Boucard an 
adult specimen of a Harrier; and this has at last given us some idea 
of the affinities of C. macroscelis. The discovery of this stage of 
plumage is of very great interest ; for at present we know of only one 
specimen of a Circus from Madagascar, the type of C. macroscelis of 
Prof. Newton, described in these ‘ Proceedings’ more than eleven 
years ago. Notwithstanding the frequent visits of collectors to the 
island, no one has before succeeded in getting the Harrier, which, 
being founded on an immature specimen, has always been difficult of 
identification ; and when I wrote the first volume of my ‘ Catalogue 
of Birds’ I had not seen the species (Cat. B. i. p. 73). Its chief 
peculiarity lay in the long leg, measuring 4 inches in the tarsus; and 
as the only other Harrier which has such a lengthened tarsus is the 
Australian C. gouldi, Professor Schegel has recently suggested the 
identity of the two birds. The arrival of an adult specimen enables 
us to arrive at the true affinities of the Madagascar Harrier, which, 
as might have been expected, are with C. maillardi of Réunion; 
indeed the question now to be solved is whether it is not specifically 
identical with that bird. It is certainly very close indeed, resembling 
C. maillardi in the uniform wing-lining, the quills having no bars ; 
but our example differs in having the upper tail-coverts barred with 
brown, and the tail with seven bands. Mr. Gurney has most kindly 
interested himself in the question of these Harriers ; and the authori- 
ties of the Norwich Museum with the utmost liberality have sent 
me up for examination a young bird from Réunion, an adult bird 
from Joanna Island, and the type of C. macroscelis. The Joanna 
specimen agrees perfectly with our Madagascar bird, and like it has 
barred upper tail-coverts and tail. Mr. Gurney also informs me that 
a second Joanna specimen is in the Norwich Museum and likewise 
has the upper tail-coverts barred. There is, however, to my mind, 
such a decided appearance of change in these bars that I cannot 
bring myself to attach much specific importance to them ; for they are 
not bold and decided cross bands, but rather faintly disappearing 
bars, not exactly the same on any two feathers, and more strongly in- 
dicated on the Madagascar than on the Joanna example, the latter 
being, to my mind, rather more adult. The typical OC. macroscelis 
I regard either as an old female or an immature bird in its second 
plumage, intermediate between its brown or “ Marsh-Harrier ’’ dress 
and the fully adult livery. It must be borne in mind, however, that 
it was sexed a male by Mr. Edward Newton ; and therefore it is pos- 
sible that it is an immature bird, as above suggested, though the size 
gives the idea that probably a mistake took place in the sexing. 
All the characters, then, that can be brought forward for the sepa- 
ration of C. macroscelis from C. maillardi are the barred upper tail- 
coverts and the bands on the tail. Possibly the young birds may be 
different ; and this will be the case if Madagascar and Joanna never 
