1 842.]* Asiatic Society. 109 



names, arising from the circumstance that all the species of this genus change their 

 plumage twice in the year, and that in many of them the breeding dress of the males 

 is so different from that which succeeds it, that observers are apt to regard as different 

 species what are merely two seasonal phases of the same bird ; nor is this the only 

 source of confusion in the present instance ; there really are two Indian species, which 

 by some are more appropriately distinguished by the names mentioned ; while others 

 regard the males of both in nuptial livery as the Floriken, or Black Floriken, and 

 refer them to the Leek, or Common Floriken, when in the plumage which alternates 

 with the breeding dress ; a third class, having observed the mutation in one or the other 

 of these species, and thus positively ascertained that the alleged Floriken and Leek, as 

 known to them, are one and the same, naturally enough conclude that but one species 

 is referred to by these appellations, as indeed appears to be truly the case in Southern 

 India, where the Leek of Bengal, or Otis aurita, is the only species included in Mr. 

 Jerdon's valuable catalogue, in addition to the large O. nigriceps (figured in Gould's 

 Century), which is there exclusively styled Bustard. The specimens now under con- 

 sideration consist of a beautiful male of O. deliciosa, Hardwicke, (or Himalayana, Vi- 

 gors,) in full nuptial costume (as figured in Gould's Century), being the Black Flo- 

 riken, and in its other dress the Common or Bastard Floriken — as sometimes distin- 

 guished from the Leek — of Bengal ; and a female in summer dress of O. aurita (figured 

 in Jardine and Selby's ' Illustrations of Ornithology,' plates xl. and xcii), which, as be- 

 fore mentioned, is the genuine Leek of Bengal, at least of those who properly distin- 

 guish the two species; this latter is a much smaller bird than the other, and may 

 always be at once recognised by the remarkable attenuation and sharp points of its 

 wing primaries ; it is a species new to our collection. 



Among the Birds which have been procured in the neighbourhood, I may first pro- 

 ceed to notice two fine species of Erne, or Fishing Eagle, {Halia'etus, Savigny.) One 

 is the Ring-tailed Erne (H. Macei, or Falco Macei, Tern.), and from which I cannot 

 perceive in what the H. albipes of Mr. Hodgson (described in J. A. S. v. 228, and 

 further noticed in vi. 367-8,) differs, bearing in mind that H. Macei was originally de- 

 scribed from a dry skin ; moreover the H. unicolor of Mr. Gray, founded on one of the 

 drawings published by him from the late Major Gen. Hardwicke's extensive collec- 

 tion, I very strongly suspect will prove to be merely the second plumage of the same 

 bird. Our Museum contains two specimens of this alleged H. unicolor, one of them 

 being known with certainty to be of the age mentioned ; otherwise, it might have been 

 suspected, from the lengthened and attenuated form of its nuchal plumes, to have been 

 older ; it is probable that the third plumage of the species will prove to be intermedi- 

 ate, and I trust to be soon able to procure one in transitional state of feather, which 

 would settle the question beyond dispute. This fine large species, the worthy oriental 

 representative oi H. albicillus in Europe, H. leucocephalus in North America, and 

 three or four more in different regions, appears to be not uncommon in Bengal, and 

 is included in Dr. McClelland's Catalogue of the birds of Assam (P. Z. S., 1839, 

 153), appearing, indeed, to be plentiful throughout the course of the Ganges and Boor- 

 ampooter with their tributaries ; but it is not mentioned in any of the lists which I have 

 seen of the birds of Peninsular India, not even in the very elaborate catalogue furnished 

 by Mr. Jerdon, and published in successive numbers of the Madras Journal of Litera- 

 ture and Science. Mr. Hodgson mentions that his H. albipes frequently robs the Osprey 

 of its spoil, just as the White-headed species of the west does the Osprey of that re- 

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