






372 ‘ Mr. J. H. Gurney’s Notes on 
buteo cryptogenys of Flodgson really identical with his 4. stro- 
phiatus, and consequently with Blyth’s A. hemiptilopus ? 
Mr. Hodgson appears to have been very decided in his 
opinion that A. cryptogenys is a good and distinct species, as 
may be seen by a reference to the paper in which he described 
and figured it in the 8th volume of the ‘ Caleutta Journal of 
Natural History ;? but unfortunately the type specimen of A. 
cryptogenys does not (so far as I know) now exist, and in its 
absence it is not easy to decide with certainty whether it 
really was or was not distinct from 4. strophiatus, or, to 
use the more correct name, from A. hemiptilopus. 
I am indebted to Mr. W. E. Brooks, who has paid con- 
siderable attention to this question, for his expression of his 
opinion that Mr. Hodgson’s view of the distinctness of A. 
cryptogenys.was correct ; but, on the other hand, Mr. Hume, 
in the article in ‘Stray Feathers’ for 1873, to which I have 
already alluded, treats A. cryptogenys as identical with A. 
hemiptilopus (though apparently not admitting the identity 
of the latter with A. strophiatus) ; and I may add that the late 
Dr. Jerdon also greatly doubted the distinctness of A. cryp- 
togenys, as may be seen by his remarks in ‘The Ibis’ for 
1871, p. 340. 
Without attempting to decide this doubtful question, I may 
nevertheless offer an observation on one point connected with 
it, viz. that the circumstance of the nares being nearly hidden 
by thickset soft plumuli in A. cryptogenys (as mentioned by 
Mr. Hodgson in his description of this Buzzard) is certainly 
not a specific peculiarity, masmuch as the nostrils are simi- 
larly covered in the type specimen of A. strophiatus, as they 
also are in the example from Shanghai in the Norwich 
Museum. 
In conclusion, it may, perhaps, be worth while to add the 
principal dimensions of the last-named specimen, which was 
marked by the collector as a male: these are—wing from 
carpal joint 17:8 inches, tarsus 3:1, middle toe s. u. 1-6; the 
culmen is imperfect. 
Proceeding to the consideration of the Rui legged Buz- 
zard of Hurope (A. lagopus), 1 may remark that Mr. Sharpe’s 

