ACCIPITER VIRGATUS. 441 



is always a more or less regular barred under surface, the 

 breast-feathers having equidistant bars of rufous and white, the 

 chest being longitudinally blotched with rufous ; the thighs 

 are more narrowly barred; the under tail-covert pure white. 

 In very old females the rufous on the sides of the body coalesces 

 and becomes uniform, while the chest and fore-neck are 

 barred with rufous, but the most adult specimen that I have 

 yet seen still preserves sufficient remains of transverse bars to 

 render it easily distinguishable from the male. It is this radical 

 difference in the adult plumage of the sexes, proved by a large 

 series ^ in the British Museum, that makes me say that Mi-. 

 Hume's bird is a female. If this conjecture proves correct, 

 then the measurements do no more than to shew that, as in 

 the case of Astur trivirgatus, a large Himalayan race exists. 

 I subjoin the measurements of some old female A. virgatus in 

 the Museum :— 



a. ad. Philippine Islands (cunning).. 

 h. ad. Madras (Jerdon) 



In my * Catalogue of Birds' I, page 151, I united A. gularis 

 of Japan to A. virgatus, as well as A. stevensoni of China. 

 Mr. Gurney, in his Critique on my work, goes fully into the 

 question, and he is inclined to separate A. gularis as a large race 

 of A. virgatus, while A. stevensoni is, in his opinion, a good 

 species. 1 have therefore re-examined all the material in the 

 Museum, largely increased since the publication of the Cata- 

 logue three years ago, and I append measurements of all our 

 adult_ specimens. Only the adults are measured, and I include 

 the dimensions of the birds in the Leyden Museum, enumerated 

 in Schlegel's Catalogue (page 32). 



a. Sad. Java (Mus. Leyd.) 



b. „ Sumatra „ „ 



c. „ Etawah (Mus. Brit.) 



d. „ Malabar „ „ 



e. „ Ceylon „ 



f. „Cochin (Jhina,, „ 



g. „ Darjeeling,, 



_ All the above appear to be adult A. virgatus, with the excep- 

 tion of the last, which may be a male of the larger form from 

 Sikhim. The Javan birds are slightly smaller than the Indian, 

 which accords with Mr. Gurney's experience. The latter 

 gentleman also includes a specimen from Malacca, but the only 

 adult bird which I have seen from there is referable to the 

 paler form {A, stevensoni). The following measurements refer 



