Abstract

VoL 46] VIRTUE, Birds at Tvrokina .331 The Two Phases of Astur nova-holland~ (Gm.) in Australia By H. N. SOUTHERN., Bureau of Animal Population, Oxford, and D. L. SERVENTY, Perth. REVIEW OF PREVIOUS WORK From the early days of Australian ornithology, there has been discussion as to the status of the white and grey goshawks, originally described as separate species. The ·former was first made known to science, being named by Gmelin in 1788 as Falco nov:e-hollandim, whilst the latter has borne at various times the specific names of raii, cinereus and clarus. Cuvier (1817) first suggested that. the white form was a phase of the grey bird~ a view which was contested by Vigors and Horsfield (1826) and other ornithologists, but found favour -with Gould in hls earlier writings (1838, 1848), though later (1865) he separated the two, mainly on the representations of Tasmanian ornithologists who were impressed with the fact that only the white bird occurred on their island. The Emu SOUTHERN & SERVENTY April A. J. North (1889) originally believed that the grey bird was the female and the white the male -of the mainland species, following a suggestion of Ramsay (1876), but he later adhered