Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Accipitres. 207 
mature to adult dress, adding the remark :—‘‘ Almost every 
possible combination of the varying plumage and shades of 
colour of different parts above described may be met with.” 
Captain Legge, in his article on this species in his ‘ Birds 
of Ceylon, gives particulars of a stage of plumage which he 
considers, and, I think, rightly, to be “ younger ” than the 
“fully adult,” and states that it “represents the generality 
of apparently adult birds killed in Ceylon.” The majority of 
Indian specimens which I have seen exhibit a plumage agree- 
ing, more or less closely, with that thus described by Captain 
Legge, which appears to be also very much the same with 
that described by Mr. Sharpe as the “ intermediate stage.” 
The almost uniformly coloured “‘ chocolate-brown” or 
‘earth-brown ”’ plumage, with much grey on the head and 
throat, which is figured by Temminck in the ‘ Planches Co- 
loriées,’ pl. 44, and which Mr. Sharpve and Captain Legge 
consider to be characteristic of the fully adult bird, is, I 
believe, a dress which is limited to birds of that age; but 
whether these always attain it I greatly doubt, as I suspect 
that some specimens permanently retain a phase of plumage 
very much agreeing with that described by Mr. Sharpe as 
peculiar to the “ intermediate stage,” but exhibit neverthe- 
less on the tail the markings indicative of adult age. 
My late friend Mr. A. Anderson informed me that, accord- 
ing to his experience, the grey on the crown of the head in P. 
ptilorhynchus was (as, usually, in P. apivorus) a peculiarity 
of the adult male; but the Norwich Museum possesses a spe- 
cimen from the Punjaub with the grey on the head diffused 
both over the throat and on the crown, which has a wing- 
measurement of 17:2 inches, and is therefore almost certainly 
a female, and no doubt an old bird, the plumage agree- 
ing with that of Temminck’s plate to which I have already 
referred ; most probably, however, the occurrence of the grey 
crown in the female of this species is quite exceptional. 
Specimens of P. ptilorhynchus from the more southern parts 
of India are scarce in the museums of this country ; but judg- 
ing from the few that I have seen, I should not consider that 
they differ from those of Northern india. Mr. Hume, how- 
