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Show '875.] ORNITHOLOGY OF MADAGASCAR. 71 Family FALCONID^E. Subfamily ACCIPITRIN^E. CIRCUS MACROSCELIS, A. Newton; Sharpe, Cat. B. i. p. 73. The British Museum has recently acquired from Mr. Boucard an adult specimen of a Harrier ; and this has at last given us some idea of the affinities of C. macroscelis. The discovery of this stage of plumage is of very great interest; for at present we know of only one specimen of a Circus from Madagascar, the type of C. macroscelis of Prof. Newton, described in these * Proceedings' more than eleven years ago. Notwithstanding the frequent visits of collectors to the island, no one has before succeeded in getting the Harrier, which, being founded on an immature specimen, has always been difficult of identification ; and when I wrote the first volume of m y ' Catalogue of Birds' I had not seen the species (Cat. B. i. p. 73). Its chief peculiarity lay in the long leg, measuring 4 inches in the tarsus; and as the only other Harrier which has such a lengthened tarsus is the Australian C. gouldi, Professor Schegel has recently suggested the identity of the two birds. The arrival of an adult specimen enables us to arrive at the true affinities of the Madagascar Harrier, which, as might have been expected, are with C. maillardi of Reunion; indeed the question now to be solved is whether it is not specifically identical with that bird. It is certainly very close indeed, resembling C. maillardi in the uniform wing-lining, the quills having no bars; but our example differs in having the upper tail-coverts barred with brown, and the tail with seven bands. Mr. Gurney has most kindly interested himself in the question of these Harriers ; and the authorities of the Norwich Museum with the utmost liberality have sent me up for examination a young bird from Reunion, an adult bird from Joanna Island, and the type of C. macroscelis. The Joanna specimen agrees perfectly with our Madagascar bird, and like it has barred upper tail-coverts and tail. Mr. Gurney also informs me that a second Joanna specimen is in the Norwich Museum and likewise has the upper tail-coverts barred. There is, however, to m y mind, such a decided appearance of change in these bars that I cannot bring myself to attach much specific importance to them; for they are not bold and decided cross bands, but rather faintly disappearing bars, not exactly the same on any two feathers, and more strongly indicated on the Madagascar than on the Joanna example, the latter being, to m y mind, rather more adult. The typical C. macroscelis I regard either as an old female or an immature bird in its second plumage, intermediate between its brown or " Marsh-Harrier" dress and the fully adult livery. It must be borne in mind, however, that it was sexed a male by Mr. Edward Newton ; and therefore it is possible that it is an immature bird, as above suggested, though the size gives the idea that probably a mistake took place in the sexing. All the characters, then, that can be brought forward for the separation of C. macroscelis from C. maillardi are the barred upper 1 ail-coverts and the bands on the tail. Possibly the young birds may be different; and this will be the case if Madagascar and Joanna never |