Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue 0 /Accipitres. 101 
are so intermediate that I am at a loss where to draw the line 
o£ demarcation between them. 
Contrary to the opinion whieh I entertained some years 
since, I am now fully convinced that S. elgini of the Anda¬ 
mans is a very good and distinct species. Mr. Sharpe de¬ 
scribes it as differing in no respect from the Spilornis of 
Java, excepting that it is very much hlacker.^^ But this is 
not quite accurate; for although the average of specimens of 
S. elgini are somewhat darker than the average of those of 
S. bidOy I have seen several adult specimens of the latter as 
dark as, or even darker than, some of elgini. A much more 
definite distinction is the comparative narrowness of the trans¬ 
verse pale bars on the primaries and of the lower transverse 
pale bar on the tail, as pointed out by Lord Tweeddale in 
^ The Ibis ^ for 1873, pp. 299, 300 ; another difference is, that 
in the adults of S. elgini the white spots almost invariably 
extend about two inches higher up on the throat than in those 
of S. bido. 
I have had the opportunity of seeing eight Bornean speci¬ 
mens of S. pallidus in the British and Norwich Museums, and 
in the collection of the Marquis of Tweeddale, and I feel no 
doubt that this also is a good and distinct species; but I do 
not think the colouring of the adult in the figure given in 
Mr. Sharpens volume is entirely satisfactory. It seems to me 
that in this figure the pale bluish grey of the chin, upper 
throat, and ear-coverts is not sufficiently conspicuous, that 
the scapulars are somewhat too dark, and that the abdominal 
and tibial ocellations are represented as smaller than they 
ought to be, and the latter not sufficiently as grouping them¬ 
selves in the form of bars. 
Mr. Sharpe gives the measurement of the wing in the adult 
male of this species as 14 inches; but in one such specimen, 
preserved in the British Museum, the wing only measures 13'1. 
Another still more distinct species is S. minimus^ from the 
Nicobar Islands, inserted in the Addenda at p. 459 of Mr. 
I Sharper’s volume, from ^ Stray Feathers ’ for 1873, p. 464. To 
I the full description there given by Mr. Hume of this inter¬ 
esting little Spilornis I have nothing to add, except that, 
1 
