RING-TAILED HARRIER. 375 



and the birds may be caught by placing a common rat-trap, 

 or they may be shot in a moonlight night. In both ways I 

 have procured many specimens." 



The eggs vary from three to five, and are of a broadish ellipti- 

 cal form, and of a bluish- white colour, sometimes faintly dotted 

 with brown, their average length an inch and three-fourths, 

 their breadth an inch and four twelfths. The young are at 

 first covered with white down. 



Young. — When fledged, the young of both sexes resemble 

 the adult female. The bill is brownish-black, the bases of 

 both mandibles yellow, the iris dark hazel, the feet yellow, 

 the claws brownish-black. The upper parts are deep umber- 

 brown, the smaller wing-coverts with two spots of light red, 

 the upper tail-coverts white, each with a reddish-brown lanceo- 

 late streak, the tail with four bands of light red ; the hind- 

 neck, ruff, and lower parts light yellowish-red, longitudinally 

 streaked with dark brown ; the lower surface of the outer quills, 

 and the tail, very conspicuously barred. The males may be 

 distinguished from the females by their inferior size. 



Progress toward JNIaturity. — Montagu, who first ascer- 

 tained the change which the male undergoes, gives the follow- 

 ing description of one which he had reared from the nest, and 

 which he killed in the middle of October, when in its second 

 year, it having undergone no change in the first year, except- 

 ing in some new feathers of the wings and tail, which replaced 

 those that had been plucked by him for the purpose. " The 

 plumage of the Ring-tail, or female, still remains about the 

 neck, the smaller coverts of the wings, the thighs, and part of 

 the belly, intermixed with the male plumage ; the top of the 

 head and wreath have also a mixture of the feathers of both 

 sexes ; the quills, scapulars, and tail, are completely mascu- 

 line ; in the last of these are a few small broken bars of cine- 

 reous brown, on a white ground, in the three outer feathers, 

 the exterior margins cinereous-grey ; the six middle feathers 

 are almost wholly grey, and the markings are very obscure be- 

 neath. From the account here given of the Heu-Harrier, it 

 is quite clear that the change of plumage is effected in the 



