Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Accipitres. 365 
iris instead of the dark hazel iris which is characteristic of 
normal specimens. 
Apart from these accidental variations of plumage, the 
passage from the immature to the adult dress is not marked 
in this species by any very conspicuous change; the dark 
markings on the under surface, however, are decidedly more 
or less longitudinal in immature specimens, whilst they are 
always transverse in those which are fully adult, except on 
the throat, where they are permanently longitudinal. 
Mr. Sharpe speaks of a young bird as having the inter¬ 
spaces on the upper surface of the tail “ strongly shaded with 
rufous/'’ I have also seen a rufous tinge on the rectrices of 
an immature specimen; but it is by no means a characteristic 
of immature age, as it is most frequently absent at that 
period, and on the other hand, I never saw it so strongly 
marked as in a specimen which was known to have lived in 
confinement for twenty years. 
At page 182 of his work, Mr. Sharpe also remarks that 
British specimens of this Buzzard “ are certainly darker than 
continental birds ” This statement does not altogether tally 
with my experience; and it is my belief that no geographical 
variation of tint would be found to prevail in a sufficient 
series of normal specimens of British and foreign origin, 
though I think it probable that partial leucotism will be 
found more rife among the individuals of this species in some 
countries than in others, and though it certainly is not very 
prevalent amongst British specimens, which are> for the most 
part, normal in their markings and coloration*. 
It is remarkable that the island of Madagascar should pos¬ 
sess a distinct Buzzard ( B . brachypterus ), which, but for its 
proportionally shorter wing, might almost be said to be a 
miniature of B. vulgaris ; but as this curious species does not 
appear to require any further comment on the present occa- 
* The 1 Zoologist ’ for the present year contains at page 4829 an inter¬ 
esting note by Mr. Cordeaux on the contents of a nest of Buteo vulgaris, 
taken in North Wales in June 1872. He says, “ there were two young 
partly fledged birds in the nest; and beside them lay two moles, two 
stoats, and a pine-marten.” 
