456 
Mr. J. H. Gurney^s Notes on 
P. ichthyaetus, the largest of the genus^ and also the most 
widely diffused^ is, when in adult plumage, readily distin¬ 
guished by the tail being white, with a broad terminal band 
of brown. 
Mr. Sharpe enumerates various localities in which this 
species is to be found, and some additional information on 
this head is given by Mr. Hume in a valuable note on this 
genus in ^ Stray Feathers^^ for 1877, pp. 129, 130, in con¬ 
nexion with which I may mention that the most north¬ 
westerly locality in which I have heard of this bird being 
obtained is the neighbourhood of Delhi, where, as I learnt 
from my late friend Mr. A. Anderson, a specimen exhibiting 
the characteristic white base of the tail was procured by 
Captain Bingham, either in January or early in February, 
1876. 
Mr. Sharpe describes the irides of the adult bird of this 
species as brown but this appears to be their colour in the 
young stage only [vide Hume^s ^ Scrap-book,^ p. 241, footnote, 
also ^ Stray Feathers,^ 1875, pp. 29, 30); the adult bird in 
Java, according to Horsfield^s ^ Zoological Researches,^ has 
the irides bright sulphur-yellow and Captain Legge has 
noted the irides of the adult in Ceylon as clear yellow, 
beautifully mottled with brown [vide Ibis^ 1875, p. 278); 
two adults from Ceylon, in the collection of the Marquis of 
Tweeddale, are simply marked by the collector as having the 
irides yellow.’^ 
P.plumbeus is a somewhat smaller bird than P. ichthyaetus, 
and, according to Mr. Hume [vide ^ Stray Feathers,^ 1877, 
p. 11), is considerably less bulky; it, however, approaches, 
and in some cases even equals, P. ichthyaetus in the measure¬ 
ment of the wing ; it is an inhabitant of the countries lying 
immediately to the south of the Himalayan mountains, and 
is stated by Mr. Hume to range as far westward as Afghan¬ 
istan, and eastward to Assam {;vide ^ Stray Feathers,’ 1877, 
p. 130). 
For further particulars as to this species I would refer to 
the account given of it by Mr. Hume in his ^ Nests and Eggs 
of Indian Birds,’ p. 43, and in the passages in ^ Stray Fea- 
