368 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 
cation of immaturity; and as all the melanistic specimens 
which I have seen, as well as those described by Mr. Hume 
(vide ‘ Rough Notes/ p. 282), are thus barred, I cannot but 
believe that they are immature birds, and not very old indi¬ 
viduals, as supposed by Mr. Sharpe. 
At the same time it is quite certain that this melanistic 
phase is not the ordinary immature plumage (vide Mr. Dres¬ 
ser's description of a nestling from Smyrna) ; and I there¬ 
fore look upon it as an accidental and abnormal variation 
which, so far as I know, has hitherto only been met with in 
Northern, and especially in North-western India, and once 
also in Abyssinia*. 
Mr. W. E. Brooks, to whose correspondence I have been 
indebted for much information upon Indian birds of prey, 
writes to me respecting this dark-coloured form as follows 
“It is a common bird in the Northern Punjaub, where it is 
commoner than the red bird ; since it never leaves its north¬ 
ern quarters, like the other, 1 believe it to be distinct from 
B. ferox ” 
Mr. Hume, on the contrary, though he in the first instance 
described the fuliginous form as being probably specifically 
distinct (vide Ibis, 1869, p. 356), has subsequently inclined 
to the opinion that it is identical with B. ferox , and that the 
fuliginous plumage is assumed (as stated by Mr. Sharpe) by 
old rather than by immature individuals (vide ‘ Rough Notes/ 
p. 278, and ‘ Stray Feathers/ 1873, p. 159). 
It would appear, from Mr. Hume's article in the f Rough 
Notes/ that he does not take the same view as Mr. Brooks 
of the relative abundance of the two forms in the Punj¬ 
aub; but this may, perhaps, arise from Mr. Hume's ob¬ 
servations having reference to a more southerly district of 
the Punjaub than those of Mr. Brooks, and we may look 
with confidence to the zeal and perseverence of our ornitho¬ 
logical fellow-labourers in Northern India as a means of 
clearing up, by further observations, whatever still remains 
doubtful and obscure in our knowledge of this fine Buzzard. 
* Since the above was in print I have observed that the dark phase of 
Buieo ferox has been recorded by Severtzoff (under the title of B. nigricans ) 
as occurring and breeding in Turkestan: vide 1 The Ibis,’ 1875, p. 103. 
