BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA 



501 



brown to light fuscous, the basal half or so of the inner webs of the 

 remiges white, the amount of pure white decreasing from the outer- 

 most to the innermost remex, the decrease due to a progressive ex- 

 tension and widening of the neutral gray area basally on the inner 

 web next to the shaft on these feathers, the light areas on the inner 

 webs of the secondaries and inner primaries crossed by two or three 



Figure 37.— Circus cyaneus. 



incomplete fuscous bars; upper tail coverts white; tail neutral gray to 

 deep neutral gray, whitish basally and at the tip, with a fairly broad 

 subterminal fuscous band, and, anterior to this by five to seven nar- 

 row and often indistinct bands of the same; the rectrices whitish on 

 their inner webs, making the bands stand out more distinctly, some- 

 tunes washed with buff to pale tawny; lower breast, abdomen, sides, 

 flanks, thighs, and under tail coverts white; the sides, lower breast, and 

 upper abdomen usually with small wood brown to tawny-olive wedge- 



