546 



Notices and Descriptions of various New or Little Known Species of 



Birds. By Ed. Blyth, Curator of the Asiatic Society's Museum. 



[Continued from p. 212, ante.] 



After the first part of this article was consigned to the press, an 

 opportunity occurred of looking over Gould's magnificent ' Birds of 

 Australia,' up to the nineteenth number of that work ; and a few of the 

 notes I took from it, bearing on the Ornithology of India, may here be 

 introduced. 



Among the Falconidce, a second species of my genus Butaetus* 

 (ante, p. 174,) occurs in the Aquila morphnoides y Gould, P. Z. S. 

 1840, p. 161 ; and the slight enlargement and elongation of the central 

 occipital feathers recurs in it, which I mentioned to exist in fine speci- 

 mens of B. pennatus. Falco hypoleucos, Gould, (ibid), which that 

 naturalist considers to be the Australian representative of the Jer Fal- 

 con of the north, is very closely allied to F.juggur of India, from 

 which it only appears to differ in having a dark forehead, no trace of 

 supercilium, and the broadly white patch on the cheeks greatly dimi- 

 nished. Milvus affinis, Gould, the common Kite of Australia gene- 

 rally, excepting Van Dieraen's Land, appears to be quite identical 

 with M. govinda of India ; but in that case the cere and feet are 

 coloured too deeply : I can perceive no other difference whatever. 

 Elanus axillaris (v. notatus, Gould,) is certainly distinct from E. 

 melanopterus of India ; and a beautiful new species is figured as 

 E. scriptus. I am also informed by Mr. Strickland, that the Ame- 

 rican E. dispar has the tail wholly white, and a smaller beak than E. 

 melanopterus : so that four species of this generic form are now esta- 

 blished. A South African specimen of E. melanopterus, in first plu- 

 mage, presented to the Society by Lord Arthur Hay, appears to me 

 to be identical with the bird of India, although his lordship inclines to 

 a different opinion. 



In the Athene strenua, Gould, we have an Owl of the largest size, 

 yet strictly pertaining to this genus of (generally) very diminutive 

 Owls: and the Athene? connivens, (Lath.) Gould, Ath. maculata, (V. 



* This name must yield to Hieraetus of Kaup (1844); which 1 learn from Mr. 

 G. 11. Gray's extremely useful illustrated work on the genera of birds, seventeen num- 

 bers of which are now before me, and from these 1 shall have occasion to append some 

 notes to the present paper. Mr. Gray merges Hieraetus in Aquila. 



