Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Accipitres. 463 
It may be observed that the first of these subdivisions 
comprises the two African species, the second that which is 
limited to Madagascar, the third the Australian and Oceanic 
races, whilst the fourth consists of a species inhabiting India 
and the Malay countries; it ought, however, to be noted, 
as a modification of this distribution, that B. lophotes occurs 
in Ceylon, whilst B. ceylonensis and B. sumatrensis have been 
obtained on the continent of Asia—a circumstance to which I[ 
shall have to refer in treating of those species. 
I propose to adhere to the order in which I have enume- 
rated the several species in the few remarks which I shall 
make respecting them. 
We are indebted to Mr. Sharpe for pointing out a ready 
mode of distinguishing the adults of B. verreauxi from those 
of B. cuculoides, which I believe had not been noticed by any 
previous author, and which may be quoted in his own words, 
“under wing-coverts uniform rufous*, ..., cuculoides ; under 
wing-coverts barred with rufous and white... verreauai.” 
In their first plumage the two species seem to me to be 
undistinguishable. 
Mr. Sharpe describes the type specimen of B. cuculoides 
(which is preserved in the Cambridge Museum) -as “ above 
ashy brown, with a cindery grey on the interscapulary region, 
the head and crest darker, and more inclining to slaty black ;” 
but in a specimen from the river Gaboon, which is preserved 
in the British Museum, and which is adult, with the excep- 
tion of a very narrow rufous nuchal collar, probably a relic 
of immaturity, the slaty-black hue is not confined to the © 
head, but extends generally over the mantle, with the excep- 
tion of the concealed white bases to the feathers, the propor- 
tion of white on these feathers being greatest on the lower 
scapulars In this specimen the slate-colour of the mantle 
is decidedly blacker and less grey than is the colour of the 
corresponding parts in the adult of B. verreauxi. 
Mr. Ridgway, in his remarks on the genera Avicida and 
Baza, to which I have already referred, has the following 
* Mr. Sharpe gives a figure of Baza cuculoides showing the rufous 
under wing-coverts (vide pl. 11. fig. 2, of his work). 
