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Show 1875.] MR. SHARPE ON THE ACCIPITRES OF AUSTRALIA. 337 5. Contributions to a History of the Accipitres, or Birds of Prey. By R. B O W D L E R SHARPE, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c, of the Zoological Department, British Museum. Notes on the rarer Accipitres of Australia. [Received April 19, 1875.] The specimens which I have the pleasure of exhibiting before the Society to-night have all been collected in the interior of Queensland by Mr. J. B. White, a gentleman whom Mr. Ramsay has already introduced to the notice of ornithologists as the discoverer of the egg of Chlamydodera maculata (vide P. Z. S. 1874, p. 605). During a recent visit to England Mr. White submitted his series of Accipitres to me ; and I found so many interesting birds among them, many in stages of plumage hitherto unknown and undescribed, that I have put together a few notes on the most important species. ERYTHROTRIORCHIS RADIATUS (Lath.). Urospizias radiatus, Sharpe, Cat. B. i. p. 159. Mr. White has an adult male and a young female of this interesting bird; and it is quite evident that my measurements, taken from a supposed female bird in the Museum collection, were wrongly given by me in the ' Catalogue.' Mr, White's birds measure as follows : - 6 ad. Total length 20*5 inches, culmen 1*35, wing 14*9, tail 9*2, tarsus 3. 2 jun. Total length 24*5 inches, culmen 1*6, wing 16*9, tail 10*5, tarsus 3*25, Young female. Larger than the male, as will be seen by the measurements, and immensely more powerful in the talons. Above tolerably uniform brown, the hind neck mottled with white bases to the feathers, a few of the feathers on the hind neck and upper wing-and tail-coverts showing the characteristic bright rufous margins; median and greater wing-coverts shaded with ashy grey, and barred across with dark brown, exactly like the secondaries, which are outwardly greyish with four distinct bands of dark brown, the tips of the feathers whitish; the primary coverts and primaries greyish, barred with blackish, about nine bands being distinguishable on the latter; on all the feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts are indications of concealed greyish white cross bars, many of the latter being also tipped with white ; tail-feathers grey, narrowly tipped with white and crossed with nine bands of blackish brown, increasing to ten in number on the outer tail-feathers; sides of face brown, the lower ear-coverts streaked with white; cheeks and throat white, distinctly streaked with blackish brown ; all the rest of the under surface broadly streaked with blackish brown, the chest washed with tawny; the centre of the body white, the flanks greyish, many of the feathers margined with bright rufous ; thighs entirely bright rufous, entirely uniform; vent and under tail-coverts whitish, with narrow blackish PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1875, No. XXII. 22 |
