316 Notes. 



dark hair brown^ with a certain slight chocolate tinge, with on 

 the rectriees five or six moderately broad, somewhat imperfectly 

 defined, paler and greyer brown, transverse bai's. 



It must be understood once for all that Mr. Hodgson's 

 colouring is almost perfect ; the drawing' may be at times stiff 

 and the positions strained in cases in which he did not himself 

 first sketch the outline, but his colouring is as a rule more 

 faithful than that of au}^ artists I have seen. In the mottled 

 plumag-e of many goat-suckers, scops, tragopaus, &e., every 

 feather has been, as it were, photographed in colours, and I 

 believe that I can absolutely depend on the accuracy of the plate, 

 from which I have taken tl)e above description. 



On this plate Mr. Hodgson has recorded as follows : 

 '^AuCHiBUTEO CEYPTOGENYS, (ptilogeni/s, Tibet(ina), Mihi ; tip 

 of bill to tip of tail, E5 ; bill to gape, 1*75 to 1-87; to brow, 

 1*12; tail, 12-25; tarsi to sole, 3*62; mid toe and nail, 2; hind 

 ditto ditto, 1"62; wing closed, 18'5. 



Tibet, Dec. 1846, skin only. Like Booted buzzard; tarsi, 

 wholly plumed ; acropodia, half scutellate, nearly ; rest re- 

 ticulate. Toes, medial, unequal, not thick. Talons of medial 

 strength and acuteness, rather long than thick. Bill, short, 

 feeble ; to head as 1*87 to 1'62 ; curved from base and base very 

 plumose, ev«n uares being hid ; nares ovoid obliquely longitu- 

 dinal ; wings and tail, injured. Gape to mid eye, hispid and 

 plumed. Bill with vague large festoon; tip of lower mandible 

 obliquely truncate. 



" Variously allied to Butaquila leucocephalus , to circus (Buteo ?) 

 plumijjes and Hemmkis strophiaiits." 



Of these latter species I shall have more to say on another 

 occasion, but in regard to this present bird, I would first note 

 that all the above remarks as to structural points, and as to the 

 dense pluming of the lores and the nearly entirely concealed 

 nares, apply in their full integrity to my bird, only mine is 

 considerably larger in some dimensions, and was therefore 1 am 

 disposed to believe, a female, while Mr. Hodgson's was, I fancy, 

 a male. My bird measures in the dry skin : 



Length, 27 ; bill to gape, 1'98; to brow, 1*3 ; tail, 12; tarsi 

 to sole, 3"5 ; mid toe and claw, 2*16 ; hind do. do., 1'7 ; closed wing, 

 19-75. [Jerdon gives, L. 28; T. 13 ; W. 20*25 ; hind toe and claw. 



Forehead, chin, and lores greyish white, the bristle-like feathers 

 of the latter dark shafted at the tips. Cheeks and ear coverts, 

 fulvous white, the longer ear coverts fulvous, and with narrow 

 wood brown streaks. Crown and occiput, nearly uniform wood 

 brown, some few of the feathers very narrowly margined paler ; 



