374 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 
birds. In such specimens these bands are from three to four 
in number, in addition to the dark subterminal band, which 
is also found in younger individuals, and is much broader 
in young birds than in those which are adult. 
In those specimens which are in a state of change from 
the immature to the fully adult dress, this broad and dark 
subterminal band is itself crossed by one or more compara¬ 
tively narrow bands of a paler brown, which ultimately be¬ 
come white as the bird assumes its completely adult dress. 
The iris in this species appears to be brown in some spe¬ 
cimens and yellow in others, and to exhibit various shades 
of these colours in different individuals. 
Melanistic varieties of this Buzzard are extremely rare, 
which is the more remarkable as they are of very frequent 
occurrence in the case of its closely allied North-American 
representative, A. sancti-johannis. 
Such a melanistic specimen is mentioned by Professor 
Newton at page 122 of the f Ootheca Wolleyana;' and I have 
recently seen a remarkably fine melanism of this species, 
which was one of the many examples of the Rough-legged 
Buzzard obtained in Great Britain during the autumn and 
winter of 1875. 
This specimen, which was trapped in the neighbourhood of 
Barnstaple in December last, has been added to the collec¬ 
tion of the Rev. Murray A. Matthew, of Bishop's Lydeard, 
in Somersetshire, to whose courtesy I have been indebted for 
an opportunity of examining it, so far as the case in which 
it is now glazed up would permit of my doing so. It is a very 
fine specimen, and unusually large in its dimensions for a 
male bird, which it is asserted to have been by the bird- 
stuffer who dissected and mounted it; Mr. Matthew, who 
measured it before it was cased up, informed me that he found 
the length of the wing from the carpal joint 17’5 inches, and 
that of the tarsus 3*5. The bird had, apparently, just com¬ 
pleted its moult, and is in beautiful condition, the plumage 
being throughout (with very slight exceptions, hereafter to 
be noticed) of a very dark brown, strongly tinged with pur¬ 
plish reflections, especially on the interseapulary feathers; 
