443 



By J. H. GuKNEY. 



In the Ibis for 1875, at pp. 480 and 481, I gave a series 

 of measurements of Accipiter virgaius and j4. gtilaris^ and 

 remarked that " these measurements lead to the inference that 

 northern specimens (of A. virgatus) are, on the average, larger 

 than those from more southern localities, and this excess in 

 size is still moi'e apparent in the race inhabiting Japan and 

 Formosa, which has been separated under the title of A. gu- 

 laris." It was then, and is now, my impression that A. gula- 

 ris may, on account of its decidedly larger size, be admitted as 

 a geographical race sub-specifically distinct from A. virgatus ; 

 but that the characters, independent of size, which had been 

 supposed to distinguish it, viz., the comparative shortness of 

 the toes and of the fifth primary, were not sufficiently constant 

 as distinctive marks, to admit of their being relied on as such. 



Mr. Hume has been kind enough to lend me four specimens 

 from Sikhim of a large form of A. virgatus, which he fancied 

 might prove distinct, but which appears to me not to be separ- 

 able from the Japanese A. gularis. 



In my list of measurements of ^. virgatus, given in the Ibis as 

 above referred to, a specimen from Sind in the Norwich 

 Museum is included with a wing measurement of 8*2 inches, 

 which I am now disposed to refer, with Mr. Hume's Sikhim 

 specimens, to A. gularis ; and a large specimen from Nepal in the 

 British Museum should probably be referred to the same race. 



I do not think it needful to repeat the measurements which 

 I have already given in the Ibis, but I annex a statement of 

 such as I have subsequently obtained : — 



Accipiter gularis. 



