~ 
Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Accipitres. 369 
'To proceed to the consideration of another allied species, 
I may observe that Mr. Sharpe identifies Buteo japonicus of 
Temminck and Schlegel with B. plumipes of Hodgson. I do 
not feel altogether certain that this identification is correct*; 
and even if it be so, I cannot agree with Mr. Sharpe’s view 
that this dark form is the “very old” stage of plumage in 
this species. To me it seems much more hkely to be an ac- 
cidental melanism, both from its great rarity, and from the 
fact of its never having been observed either in China or 
Japan, but only in countries adjacent to the Himalayah 
Mountains—a circumstance which possibly may afford a par- 
allel to the occurrence, in a similarly restricted but more 
westerly district, of the melanistic phase of B. ferox. 
Buteo japonicus, in its normal adult plumage, bears a very 
remarkable resemblance in the coloration of the upper portion 
of the breast to the adult male of B. swainsoni of North 
America; but in the case of B. japonicus this peculiarity is, 
I believe, common to both sexes. 
Some valuable remarks on the partial feathering of the 
tarsus in this species will be found at pages 17 and 18 of the 
‘Fauna Japonica, which also treats at page 19 of the still 
greater development of this peculiarity in another oriental 
Buzzard, B. hemilasius, a species respecting which the learned 
authors of this work remark, with great truth, “ qu’elle tient 
précisément le milieu entre les buses pattues et les buses 
ordinaires.” 
As specimens of Buteo hemilasius are very scarce in col- 
lections, it may be desirable to record the following measure- 
ments of a female from Shanghai, which is preserved in the 
Norwich Museum :—culmen from front of cere 1°35 inch, 
wing from carpal joint 18°9, tarsus 3:2, middle toe s. u. 1°8. 
This specimen agrees generally in coloration with the 
female described by Mr. Sharpe, but has much fewer trans- 
verse bars on the tail: the central pair of rectrices have but 
four such bars, above which are three irregular marks that 
do not appear on the other rectrices; and some of these also 
differ from the central pair in having only three transverse 
* See Dr. Jerdon’s remarks in ‘The Ibis’ for 1871, p. 340, and Mz, 
Blanford’s in ‘The Ibis’ for 1872, p. 87. 














