Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue of Accipitres. 457 
thers^ for 1877^ to which I have already referred, and also to 
Mr. Anderson^s remarks in the P. Z. S. for 1876, p. 777, the 
latter being accompanied by a good plate of the adult bird. 
This, however, is unfortunately figured in an attitude which 
does not show the upper surface of the tail, the coloration 
of which constitutes the most marked distinction, from the 
absence of the white base in P. plumbeus, between that species 
and P. ichthyaetus. 
In P. plumbeus the entire upper surface of the tail is 
brown, except a narrow white tip to ail the rectrices other 
than the central pair, and sometimes very slightly apparent 
on that pair also, though occasionally this white tip is alto¬ 
gether absent. 
The inner webs of all the rectrices, except the central pair, 
are more or less marked with white or pale brown, the ex¬ 
ternal feathers being the most variegated, but this is not 
apparent when the tail is closed. 
There is a broad subterminal band across the closed tail, 
slightly darker than the upper part of the tail-feathers; but the 
difference of tint is often so slight as to be barely perceptible. 
I can perceive no difference in coloration between P. plum- 
beus and P. humilis^ except that in the latter the dark sub¬ 
terminal band across the tail is a little more distinct, in con¬ 
sequence of the portion of the rectrices immediately above it 
being slightly paler than in P. plumbeus ; and I am disposed 
to consider P. humilis merely a smaller south-eastern race of 
P. plumbeus, distinguishable as a subspecies, but not entitled 
to full specific rank. 
Mr. Sharpe defines the geographical range of P. humilis 
as from Assam down the Malayan peninsula to Sumatra 
and Celebes but Mr. Hume"^ doubts its being found in 
Assam, and gives, as the nearest point in that direction from 
which he has seen it. Cape Negrais, on the eastern shores of 
the Bay of Bengal. In connexion with this question I may 
mention that Mr. Sharpe, in his list of specimens of P. hu¬ 
milis preserved in the British Museum, enumerates a male 
from India and a male from Assam. I have not had an op- 
* Vide ^ Stray Feathers ’ for 1877, p. 130. 
