609 



li 



course, prove the correctness of our own supposition; but we invite the attention of ornithologists to the 

 subject ; and the figure given by Mr. Keulemans will show at once the peculiarity of the individual in question. 

 Mr. Gurney likewise suggests that the rufous-breasted male mentioned above (pp. 5, 9) also belongs to this 

 dark form. This may be the case ; and we regret that we have not been able to give a figure of it side by side 

 with Lord Huntly"s specimens : an illustration of it, however, will be found on the same Plate as the Irish 

 Sparrow-Hawks ; and the bird, being in our own collection, can always be seen by any one who wishes to do 

 so. We may add that Dresser, on a recent visit to Belgium, saw in the beautiful collection of Baron De Selys- 

 Longchamps a fine adult male, which had been killed by the owner himself. The iris was of a rich carmine- 

 red ; and the specimen is mounted with eyes of exactly the same colour as it had when fresh killed. This bird 

 is very blue on the back, and has the underparts richly marked with chestnut-brown. 



Lastly, as regards the present species in Ireland. Through the kindness of Mr. A. Basil Brooke, we have 

 examined four specimens shot at Colebrooke during the month of January 1872, and we were at once struck by their 

 very dark coloration. As we have mentioned before, English birds are generally darker than those from the Con- 

 tinent ; but these Irish specimens are darker still. A female bird, killed on the 26th of January, is especially 

 curious ; and Sir Victor Brooke, who has paid great attention to this species, informs us that he has never seen 

 any thing like this individual, which was the last remaining bird of a brood hatched on his estate last year. A 

 reference to the Plate will show the character of the markings ; but we may mention as peculiar features the 

 very thickly striped breast, the dark ear-coverts, the broad white eyebrow, and the patch of dark brown on 

 each side of the upper breast. The bars on the wing are seven in number ; on the tail six ; and it measures as 

 follows : — Total length 13 - 5 inches, culmen 08, wing 8 - 75, tail 7"0, tarsus 2"4, middle toe l - 6. 



Switzerland. In a book written by M. Becker in 1815 on the birds of this country, but which we have 

 not seen, a large form of Sparrow-Hawk is described as Falco nisus major, which was elevated into the rank 

 of a species by Dr. Degland in 1849 as Astur major. A full account of this supposed species is given by 

 MM. Degland and Gerbe in the second edition of the c Ornithologie Europeenne/ where the following remarks 

 occur (p. 101) : — " The habitat of the large Sparrow-Hawk has not been well determined. This bird has 

 hitherto only been observed in Switzerland and in France in the departments of the Somme, Seine- 

 Inferieure, and of the Eure-et-Loir. It builds on the trees; and the nest is constructed of pieces of 

 wood, which are sometimes an inch thick, and 70 millims. in size. The eggs, according to Becker and 

 Meisner, are larger, more rounded than those of A. nisus, and only dotted with brown on a greyish white 

 ground. The Comte de Tarragon, who had the opportunity of observing at his leisure the couple which he 

 made the subject of an interesting note, has seen this Hawk come boldly, several times a day, and seize 

 Swallows on the wing, in the court-yard of the dwelling-house, in the neighbourhood of which it had built its 

 nest. He has affirmed that the ground at the foot of the tree where the nest reposed was strewn with the 

 feathers and bones of different birds, chickens being among the number, and that the flooring of the eyry 

 itself was carpeted with bones. The cry of the old birds so much resembles that of a young cat as to be 

 mistaken for it ; during the season of love they utter it frequently, and at short intervals/' 



Then follows the accompanying observation : — ■" The existence of this bird, constituting, as it does, if not a 

 species, at least a local race, is not generally recognized. MM. Schinz, Delamotte, and De Selys-Longchamps 

 regard it as the old female of the ordinary Sparrow-Hawk. Temminck neither likes to affirm nor to deny its 

 existence, not having seen individuals labelled with this name. Malherbe, who shares the opinion of MM. 

 Schinz, Delamotte, and De Selys-Longchamps, believes this to be so much the better founded in that the 

 female individual which he has seen (in Degland' s collection) exhibits an alteration in the beak, caused probably 

 by the influence of climate, or by the nature of its food, or by reason of some disease — that M. Zahnd, 

 Preparateur to the Berne Museum, assured him that he had examined a great number of Sparrow-Hawks, and 

 had never found the large species — that M. Hollandre, the old Director of the Zoological Cabinet at Metz, 

 opened plenty of these Hawks of large size, and only considered them females more or less aged. These 

 objections are not without some reply. If the female bird which has brought them up, and another male, which 



