OF THE TRAVANCORE HILLS. 359 
(Schlegel) were identical with plumipes, and I see that Mr. 
Sharpe having Japanese and Chinese specimens to compare, has 
united the two. 
Having now obtained a specimen of this species from the 
hills of Southern India and having specimens from the Hima- 
layas agreeing precisely with his plate, I cannot doubt that 
Dr. Jerdon’s B. rujfiventer from the Neilgherries, a male with a 
wing of 15, belonged to this species, and not to B. desertorum, 
of which Mr. Sharpe says, that the wing never exceeds 15, and 
of which Schlegel gives 15°3 as the extreme limit; clearly if 
the wing never exceeds 15:3 in females, no male could in this 
division of the Buzzards have the wing 15. 
I have recently had to review my whole series of Indian 
Buzzards, nearly 200 specimens in all; and I take this 
opportunity of stating the conclusions at which I have arrived 
after some days’ careful study. Iam the more anxious to do 
this, because my present views differ in some respects from 
tnose that I have previously recorded. The species of Buzzards 
that I would now admit into our Indian avi-fauna, are :— 
1. Buteo ferox, S. G. Gmelin, (1769. ) 
2. »  aquilinus, Hodgs. (Blyth J. A. S. B. 1845*) 
3. 9» plumipes, Hodgson (as above). 
4. Archibuteo hemiptilopus, B/yth (1846)—strophiatus, 
Hodgs. (1844) —sine diser.—leucoptera, Hume (S. F. I. 318). 
Tt will be observed that I no longer admit desertorum to 
our list ; for a long time past I have only retained this species 
on the strength of Dr. Jerdon’s rujiventer, and now, that I 
have obtained aspecimen from Southern India and have con- 
vinced myself that it is inseparable from plumipes, I feel com- 
pelled to exclude the African species from our avi-fauna. 
At one time I separated the slightly smaller and more rufous 
specimens of ferov, so common in the Himalayas and consider- 
ed these to represent desertorum ; but even at the time (“ Rough 
Notes,” pp. 268 to 269, and note), I remarked that our birds 
seemed to be too large with reference to the dimensions given by 
European authors, as also with reference to those of a fine male 
from South Africa in Colonel Tytler’s collection, and I added of this 
latter.—“ In plumage it greatly resembles some of our Himalayan 
birds, but is much smaller than any of these. Personally, I 
feel by no means satisfied that our Indian bird is desertorum.” 
Mr. Dresser, in his recent article on this species, quotes my re- 
mark that desertorum “is confined to the Neilgherries and 
* Tt is impossible to say whether this name or Hodgson’s other name, lewcocephalus, 
should stand. This latter was read at the Zoo, on the 8th April 1845, but when the 
record of this reading was published. I cannot ascertain. Aguilinuws appeared in the 
J.A.S. B. for Ist April 1845, but when this actually appeared is doubtful. The numbers 
were often months in arrears.—ED., 8. F. 
paar 
a] 
