Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Accipitres. 317 
rower, until, by the time the final plumage has been fully 
attained, they have all vanished, the upper white or whitish 
interspace on the tail simultaneously disappearing, and the 
remaining one at the same time becoming considerably en- 
larged, so that it forms a broad white band on the centre of 
the tail, the rectrices then exhibitimg no other pale marks, 
except a narrow greyish-white tip ; there is also some white 
on the bases and tips of the upper tail-coverts, and a shght 
whitish marbling on the inner webs of the primaries; but, 
with these exceptions, the entire plumage is an unbroken 
slaty grey, of a darker tint, both above and below, but espe- 
cially on the underparts, than the earlier grey garb which is 
first assumed when the bird passes into its third stage of 
plumage. 
Professor Schlegel], in his work on the Muséum des Pays- 
Bas (Pernes, p. 8), referrmg to the specimen in the fourth 
stage of plumge figured in the ‘ Planches Col.’ t. 103, speaks 
of this dark slaty hue (‘“schiste noirdtre ”) as a melanistic 
phase ; but it seems to me to be more probably the normal 
colour of the bird in its most adult stage of plumage. 
The true melanistic phase of this species appears to me to 
be that. in which the prevailing colour is not schistaceous, 
but a blackish chocolate-brown ; such a melanistic specimen, 
from Medellin, in Antioquia, is in the collection of Messrs. 
Salvin and Godman, and is everywhere of this dark choco- 
late-brown hue, with the following exceptions, viz.:—The 
feathers of the hinder head, nape, and breast have concealed 
white bases; those of the abdomen and lower flanks are nar- 
nowly tipped with rufous; on the imner webs of the quill- 
feathers of the wing four white bars are apparent on the 
under, and partially so on the upper, surface ; two pairs of 
white spots are on the lowest row of the under wing-coverts, 
the upper pair forming a transverse bar; the upper tail- 
coverts are crossed by one white bar and the under coverts 
by two, the former being tipped with white, and the latter 
with rufous; the tail shows three pale interspaces, of which 
the uppermost is entirely white, and the others white on the 
inner webs, it also has a paletip. Analmost precisely similar 
