Five specimens from the Palæarctic Region (including one from Japan and one from Morocco) compare with three from India as follows:—
Palæarctic specimens: Wing, 18.70–20.40; tail, 9.00–10.00; culmen, 1.28–1.35; tarsus, 2.15; middle toe, 1.75–1.80.
Indian specimens: Wing, 17.00–19.75; tail, 7.00–8.75; culmen, 1.28–1.35; tarsus, 2.00; middle toe, 1.75.
The Indian specimens are slightly darker than the northern ones. In the northern series, the smallest is one from Morocco. This has the breast as white as any Australian example, and has the head and neck above as light as in many of them. The Japanese specimen is exactly like European ones in color, but is intermediate between them and the Indian ones in size, measuring, wing, 17.50; tail, 8.80; culmen, 1.30; tarsus, 2.15; middle toe, 1.60. The smallest in the series is one from Celebes, in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Cambridge (No. 12,196). This one measures, wing, 15.20; tail, 7.50; culmen, 1.20; tarsus, 2.00; and middle toe, 1.60. In colors it approaches very closely to var. leucocephalus.
[69] Pandion haliætus, var. leucocephalus (Gould). Pandion fluviatilis, var. 1, Less. Tr. Orn. 1831, 46. Pandion leucocephalus, Gould, Synop. B. Austr. I, 1832, 22, pl. vi. Pandion gouldi, Kaup, Isis, 1847. Specimens examined.—Philad. Acad., 8 (Gould’s types); Boston Soc., 1. Total, 9.
[70] McGillivray describes this plumage as that of the young, and states that the sexes are colored alike; but my observations upon freshly killed specimens, as well as skins, induce me to believe that the sexes are differently colored in their adult plumage, as described above, and the young are not different from the adults. I may be mistaken in adopting this view, but a male killed by myself, in the white-bordered plumage, had scarlet irides and other unmistakable characteristics of perfect maturity.
[71] Elanus leucurus, var. axillaris (Latham). Falco axillaris, Lath.—N. S. Wales, Draw. I. No. 49, 1801. Circus axillaris, Vieill. N. D. IV, 453. Elanus axillaris, Gray, Ann. N. H. XI, 189.—Ib. Hand List, I, 28, No. 261. Elanus notatus, Gould, B. Aust. I, pl. xxiii.
Specimens examined.—Nat. Mus., 3; Boston Soc., 1.
[72] Elanus leucurus, var. scriptus (Gould). Elanus scriptus, Gould, P. Z. S. pl. x, 1842, 80.—Bonap. Consp. 22.—Kaup, Monog. Falc. in Jardine’s Coutr. Orn. 1850, 60.—Gray, Hand List, I, 28, No. 262.
Specimens examined.—Mus. Comp. Zoöl., Cambridge, 1.