











468 Mr. J. H. Gurney’s Notes on 
culars, derived from Professor Barboza du Bocage and from 
Count Salvadori, in the second edition of Mr. Layard’s ‘ Birds 
of South Africa,’ p. 27. 
With regard to Pterolestes augur, I have to remark that 
in the stage described by Mr. Sharpe under the head of 
“adult male,’ but which I have no reason to suppose is 
limited to the male sex, the throat is sometimes pure white. 
This circumstance is not noted in Mr. Sharpe’s description ; 
but such a specimen from Abyssinia is represented in Rup- 
pell’s ‘Neue Wirbelthiere, pl. 16. fig. 1, and a similar ex- 
ample from Benguela is in the Lisbon Museum. ‘The Nor- 
wich Museum possesses an Abyssinian specimen, also in this 
stage, in which the throat is white, with the exception of 
three narrow blackish streaks, of which one is mesial and two 
lateral. 
The remarkable phase of plumage in this Buzzard, in which 
all the underparts are black, is described by Mr. Sharpe 
under the heads of “ old male” and “ old female;” but in 
Mr. Blanford’s ‘Observations in Abyssinia,’ that traveller 
remarks, at p. 297, ““I am rather of opinion, with Ruppell, 
that the dark-coloured birds are young, and not a melanoid — 
variety. I shot two black specimens, one Mae ee imma- 
ture, the other apparently a bird of the year.” 
Judging from these remarks of Mr. Blanford’s, and from 
such specimens as I have been able to examine, I should 
suppose the dark plumage to be an occasional melanistic 
phase incident both to young and to adult specimens ; cer- 
tainly many immature birds do not exhibit it. The youngest 
specimen in the Norwich Museum agrees generally with the 
description given by Mr. Sharpe of the “ young” plumage ; 
but the upper tail-coverts are dark brown, and are not tipped 
with rufous; some of the tibial feathers show conspicuous 
though irregular longitudinal streaks of dark brown; and the 
abdomen is similarly streaked throughout, but more profusely 
than the tibize. 
A slightly older specimen, in the same collection, agrees 
more closely with Mr. Sharpe’s description, but also shows 
the brown markings on the thighs, though not on the abdo- 


