196 Mr. J. H. Gurney’s Notes on 
said to have been found by Pallas*), nor to its occasional 
presence in Northern China, as recorded by M. David, and 
it leaves the question undecided as to whether the Pernis 
which has been found in Japan really belongs to this species. 
The learned authors of the “ Animalia Vertebrata”’ in the 
‘Fauna Japonica,’ at p. 24 of their volume on the ornithology 
of that country, write thus :—* Pernis apivorus ; cette espéce 
.... qui se trouve, suivant Pallas, quoique en petit nombre, 
dans toute la Sibérie, habite également le Japon, d’ou nos 
voyageurs ont apporté en Europe deux femelles adultes, qui 
ne se distinguent ni par leurs formes, ou par leurs dimen- 
sions, ni par leurs formes ou leur organisation, des individus 
tués dans les différentes contrées que nous venons de nom- 
mer” (i.e. Europe, Guinea, Egypt, and Arabia). 
Professor Schlegel, in his ‘ Museum des Pays-Bas, Pernes, 
p- 2, under the head of Pernis apivorus, has the following 
entry, which probably refers to one of the above-mentioned 
specimens :—“ Femelle, plumage parfait, Japon, Voyage de 
Birger.” 
i regret that I omitted, when at Leyden some years since, 
to examine this Japanese specimen ; but Mr. Sharpe, who has 
subsequently visited the Leyden Museum, appears to have 
arrived at the conclusion that it is referable to P. ptilo- 
rhynchus, as in his list of the synonyms of that species he 
includes “ Pernis apivorus, Temm. & Schl. Faun. Japon. 
Aves, p. 24,” which Captain Legge also does in his work on 
the Birds of Ceylon, p. 89. 
Mr. Seebohm informs me that it was on the authority of 
this item in Mr. Sharpe’s volume, that he stated im ‘The 
Ibis’ for 1879, at p. 42, that the Japanese Pernis “ was in- 
correctly identified by Temminck and Schlegel with the Euro- 
pean Honey-Buzzard,” and that he has not himself seen a 
Japanese specimen. 
Mr. Sharpe also refers to P. piilorhynchus “ Pernis api- 
vorus, Swinhoe, P. Z. 8. 1871, p. 341,” which seems to in- 
volve a conflict of authorities as to the species of Pernis that 
* It does not appear to have been noticed in Siberia by subsequent 
explorers; vide Newton’s Yarrell, vol. i. p. 124. 
