157 
Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Accipitres. 
veiling rufous plumage is much paler in hue and more re¬ 
stricted in extent. Some new feathers on the sides of the 
breast are marked similarly to the corresponding new fea¬ 
thers in No. 5 ; but the brown spot upon them is rather larger, 
and without any tinge of fulvous. Similar spots are also visible 
on the under tail-coverts ; but these differ from the breast- 
spots in being divided by the shaft-mark, which is white 
where it passes through these spots, but brown where it in¬ 
tersects the spots on the breast. The irides in this specimen 
were bright pale gamboge-yellow.^'’ 
(No. 7.) A female shot near Potchefstroom on 30th July 
is still more advanced. In this specimen the upper surface is 
as in No. 6, but with a larger proportion of new dark brown 
feathers ; the interspaces between the dark transverse bars 
on the secondaries are tinged with deep grey, as in the adult; 
on the upper breast indications of the commencement of the 
adult plastron are visible—brown feathers with white bases, 
but with the brown not so dark as in the adult bird, being 
massed on the sides of the breast: the two patches of brown 
thus arranged on either side of the upper breast are divided 
by a longitudinal interval in which the feathers are white, 
with only a brown central spot, formed by the widening of 
the dark shaft-mark. The transverse brown spots on the white 
ground of the lower breast and abdomen are visible, especially 
on the former, but are more or less pale, and apparently 
fading out; on the flanks and tibiae they are darker, and, 
with the exception of those on the upper portion of the flanks, 
are divided by a white shaft-mark. The axillaries are, for the 
most part, wholly white; but some of them are slightly spotted 
with brown. The least under wing-coverts are white, with a 
brown centre to each feather, the remainder of the wing-lining 
being entirely white, as are also the under tail-coverts. The 
irides in this specimen, as noted by Mr. Ayres, were light 
gamboge-yellow.^^ 
(No. 8.) Another female shot near Potchefstroom, in 
August, may be said to have attained the adult plumage, 
with the following exceptions, viz. :—A few of the fea¬ 
thers in the centre of the plastron have not only the bases 
