28 Mr. Blyth — A few Identifications 



Haliastur indus of India proper and H. leucosternum of Australia, 

 having dark central streaks to the white portion of the plumage, 

 but considerably less developed than (constantly) in the Indian 

 bird. An Indian specimen and a Javanese one may, at the 

 present time, be seen together in the Zoological Gardens, 

 Regent's Park. Of very many examples of the Indian race ex- 

 amined or beheld close, I certainly have never seen one that 

 had the dark streaks or lines so little developed as in the Java- 

 nese bird, or most assuredly I should have remarked it. To 

 what extent the Indian and Australian races may thus grade 

 into each other, in other intermediate localities, remains to be 

 ascertained. Examples from Siam are similar to those from 

 Java ; while specimens from Bourou, Gilolo, and Aru are of the 

 true Australian race, without a trace of the medial stripes on the 

 white feathers of their plumage. Mr. Gurney informs me that 

 he thinks the Javanese race should be distinguished by the 

 name intermedins. The Australian is figured by Vieillot as 

 Haliaetus girrenera (Gal. d^Ois. t. 10) ; but he did not discrimi- 

 nate it apart from the Indian*. 



Haliaetus lineatus, Gray (Hardwicke's 111. Ind. Zool.) is 

 erroneously assigned in the ' Ibis' (1863, p. 23) to the young of 

 Milvus govinda, it being decidedly the young of Pontoaetus 

 ichthyaetiis (Horsf.) in abraded spotted plumage ; for the young 

 of this bird and of M. govinda are quite similarly speckled. 



Accipiter [Nisus) gularis, Temm. and Schl. (Fauna Japonica), 

 is identical with Accipiter nisoides, nobis, from the Malayan 

 peninsula (three specimens thence examined), and is probably 

 the Falco nisus of Sir Stamford Raffles's list of birds obtained 



* Here it may be remarked, en passant, that the particular race or 

 species of ' Plas' or ' Koklas' Pheasant to which Mr. Gould has assigned 

 the name Pucrasia castanea, from Kaffiristan (!), is that which Vieillot 

 figures as his Tragopan pucrasia, "vieux male" (Recueil d'Oiseaux, 

 t. 545). This form of Pheasant has never yet been figured correctly as 

 regards the appearance of the crest, the black feathers of which are merely 

 the auricular tufts of restricted Phasianus extraordinarily prolonged, and 

 standing up well defined and compact (or not spreading), like horns, in 

 the breeding- season; the brown lengthened coronal feathers lying recum- 

 bent between and entirely apart from them. Of course this imparts a 

 most characteristic appearance to the bird, the absence of which in the 

 published figures renders them little better than caricatures. 



