emeus ^EUGINOSUS. 67 



third, and fourth primaries, but not the fifth ; and the same holds good of 

 C cineraceus, Mont." C cy uncus cannot be confounded with either of these 

 two species ; in the formation of the fifth primary it stands apart. " In 

 C. swaimonii the emargination of the second primary begins on a level with 

 the wing- coverts, so that the bulge or widening of the outer web is almost 

 or entirely hidden; but in C. cineraceus this emargination commences nearly 

 or quite an inch below the line of these coverts, and the bulge is visible at a 

 glance." 



"' Bonaparte separated from (7. (Eruglmsus the Harriers with a facial 

 disk, like the three species in question, and erected them into a genus, 

 Strigiceps ; but it is doubtful whether the fact of the fifth primary being of a 

 diff^erent shape in (7. swainsonii and C cineraceus is not a still better generic 

 distinction, although not a good one to my mind; at all events it seems to 

 weaken the generic value of Strigiceps.'' 



Mr. A. B. Brooke (Ibis, April 1873, 3rd ser. vol. iii. p. 154), ''on the 

 Ornithology of Sardinia," says : — " Round about Oristano these Harriers 

 swarm. A nest I found in the end of April was built in the middle of a 

 reedy marshy lake, placed halfway up the stems of the reeds, just clear of 

 the water ; the bottom was formed of rough coarse sticks, and the interior of 

 dried matted rushes, in some cases with their roots attached, the egg lying 

 carelessly in the middle. Out of all the numbers that passed under my 

 notice, I never observed any (excepting in the dark brown plumage) with 

 the yellow head, a few showing buff^ markings more or less on the 

 scapulars." 



Captain G. E. Shelley, ''on Egyptian Ornithology" (Ibis, Jan. I87I, 

 3rd ser. vol. i. p. 45), states thus :— " Met with throughout Egypt and Nubia, 

 but by far the most abundant in the Delta. I cannot pass over this species 

 without a remark upon a fine series of seven specimens which I brought back, 

 in the many varied stages of adult plumage, with grey wings and tail, all of 



