Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Accipitres. 205 
besides two or more broadish* bands of darker brown, which 
broadish bands, however, are neither half the width, nor so 
well defined, nor so dark as in the old ; and secondly, a very 
similar difference in the banding of the primaries beyond the 
emarginations. All other signs of age appear deceptive.” 
As an instance of abnormal variation in the barring of the 
tail, not very dissimilar to that which is sometimes met 
with in P. apivorus, | may mention that a specimen obtained 
near Calicut, and preserved in the Norwich Museum, agree- 
ing generally with Mr. Sharpe’s description of the “ inter- 
mediate stage,’ but apparently an older bird, is remarkable 
for having the inner web of the outer pair of rectrices largely 
blotched with contorted dark markings, the other feathers 
of the tail, being of the normal adult character. 
Captain Legge describes the “ voung” plumage of P. pti- 
lorhynchus, observed by him in Ceylon, as having the “ throat 
and entire under surface, with under-wing and the edge above 
the metacarpal joint, pure unmarked white ;” and the Norwich 
Museum possesses a young Malabar specimen (from its small 
size apparently a male) which agrees with this description ; 
but it seems to me that in this species, as in P. apivorus, no 
invariable rule can be laid down as to the coloration of young 
birds, especially on the under surface. Thus Mr. Hume, at 
p- 331 of his ‘Scrap-Book,’ mentions “one guite young 
bird” as having “‘ the whole head, neck, and underparts fawn- 
coloured, the throat and chin paler and unstreaked ;” and Mr. 
Sharpe describes a young bird as having the “ entire under 
surface of the body white, with distinct longitudinal shaft- 
lines of blackish brown, broader on lower throat and sides 
of the latter, and thus forming an irregular streak on those 
parts ; under wing-coverts pure white.” 
Mr. W. E. Brooks, in a paper published in the ‘ Journal 
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. xlii. pt. 2, has a note 
on this species at p. 243, in which he says :—“ A young bird 
from the nest, which I once kept in confinement, had the 
breast of a rather light earth-brown, each feather having a 
black central stripe;....the upper plumage was a very 
* In Mr. Hume’s article “ brownish,” apparently by a misprint. 
