CIRCUS. 
group. I suggest that the Circinse are more closely allied to the Accipitrinae 
than they are to the Buteoninse, and the latter are nearer the Grcinae than 
they are the Accipitrinae. 
The Harriers were at one time placed near the Owls on account of 
their Owl-like faces and the position of the ear, but they are not now regarded 
as having any real relationship with that group. I will comment upon 
this in connection with the Owls, but it is remarkable that these birds 
are externally so similar and also that the Falconiformes among themselves 
show so great superficial likenesses. The only conclusion possible is that in 
this Order we must be guided to a very great extent by the anatomical 
worker, and in every case yet such have become unqualified genus-splitters. 
Two species of Circus occur in the Australian Avifauna, and for one of 
them Kaup proposed the subgenus Spilocircus. In structure it agrees very 
closely with typical Circus, but the adult has a very beautiful spotted plumage 
quite unique in the group. The immature plumage, however, agrees with 
that of members of the typical subgenus, and I have not therefore recognised 
the group. However^, I would note that probably anatomical investigation 
will compel its recognition, and I would record that Pycraft, following 
8uschkin, in the paper previously dealt with includes as genera Circus and 
Strigiceps. I have not differentiated the latter from an examination of skins 
alone, and have not separated it here because I do not know what is meant 
by Strigiceps at that place, as no species names are given. Bonaparte in 
the Consp. Gen. Av.', Vol. I., p. 34, 1850;, admitted two genera. Circus and 
Strigiceps, and included under the latter the above-mentioned Spilocircus, 
which is superficially wrong, as it agrees better with Circus. 
Gray, in the Handl. Gen. Spec. Birds, Vol. I., 1869, p. 37, included 
Strigiceps as a subgenus for cyaneus, not for pygargus as now recognised, 
and it is impossible to guess Suschkin’s or Pycraft’s usage at the place 
mentioned. ^ 
As a matter of fact, the correct name for the pygargus group, if separable, 
would be Pygargus Koch, as given in my synonymy, which has twenty years 
priority over Strigiceps. If the Pygargus group be recognisable from 
anatomical examination, it is almost certain that the group Spilocircus will 
also strongly differ and add another to the strange endemic Australian 
avian forms. 
Since the preceding was written, I observed on reference to Meyer and 
Wiglesworth’s Birds of Celebes, 1898, Vol. I., p. 8, the foUowing note: “The 
similarity of the adult plumage of this Harrier {Circus assimilis) to that of 
certain species of Spilornis is worthy of notice. The type of coloration mav 
be ancient. It should be remarked that Gurney^ whose arrangement of 
15 
