68 NOTE ON BUTEO DESERTORUM AND PLUMIPES. 



the specimen represented at pi. 6 of the Fauna Japonica, 

 but is somewhat darker in its general coloration, and lastly, the 

 fuliginous type specimen represented in figure 1 of plate 7 in 

 the first volume of Sharpens " Catalogue of the Birds in the 

 British Museum." 



As far as I have observed, no stage of plumage corres- 

 ponding with this fuliginous phase, nor any that is identical 

 with the very pale plumage figured at plate 6 B of the Fauna 

 Japonica, is ever assumed by Buteo desertorum ; pale specimens of 

 this latter buzzard there undoubtedly are, but these are birds 

 in faded plumage and even in this state they generally retain 

 a slight tinge of rufous and never entirely resemble the pale 

 phase of Buteo phmiipes, which is so frequently to be observed 

 in specimens of that buzzard obtained in China ; on the other 

 hand, I have never seen a specimen of B. plumipes so 

 brightly rufous on the upper surface and specially on the 

 tail, or with so much white on the breast, as is correctly 

 portrayed in the figure of Buteo desertorum given in " L' 

 Exploration de 1' Algerie." 



One phase of plumage, which is of frequent occurrence in 

 Buteo plumipes, and which is represented in Jerdon's figure 

 and also in plate 6 of the Fauna Japonica, is chiefly dis- 

 tinguished by the upper breast being covered by a cross-patch 

 or plastron of dull rufous brown differing in intensity in 

 different individuals, but only variegated with slender shaft- 

 marks, and also by the lower breast and abdomen being 

 transversely banded with alternate brown and white bars ; I have 

 once, and once only, seen a similar phase of plumage in B. 

 desertorum, the specimen exhibiting it being one from the 

 Volga in the Norwich museum. 



The second male of B. plumipes from Cashmere in the above 

 list, more closely resembles B. desertorum than any other 

 example that I have examined, not only in its small size, but 

 also in its plumage ; it has the appearance of a young bird ; and 

 having been killed on 9th July, was probably hatched during 

 the preceding spring ; it is one of the most rufous specimens of 

 B. plumipes which I have seen, and so nearly resembles in 

 coloration an immature B. desertorum from Tangiers, which is 

 also in the Norwich museum, that there is hardly any marked 

 difference in plumage between the two birds ; the dark trans- 

 verse bars on the posterior primaries are, however, more 

 strongly marked in the Cashmere than iu the Tangiers bird, 

 and I observe that this is ordinarily the case in B. plumipes 

 as compared with B. desertorum ; the tarsi are also feathered 

 lower by more than half an inch in the Cashmere specimen 

 than in the buzzard from Tangiers, and taking these two 



