386 CIRCUS iERUGINOSUS. 



wood, furze, or fern, and is composed of sticks, rushes, or 

 coarse grass. Sometimes, though rarely, it builds in the fork 

 of a large tree." The eggs, he adds, " are perfectly white, 

 without any spots, considerably less than those of the common 

 buzzard." 



Young. — When fully fledged, the young have the cere 

 greenish-yellow, the bill yellow at the base, brownish-black 

 toward the end ; the iris deep brown ; the feet yellow, the 

 claws brownish-black. The general colour of the plumage is 

 dark chocolate brown ; the feathers of the upper parts slightly 

 tipped with reddish-brown ; the upper tail-coverts tinged with 

 red ; the larger wing-coverts largely tipped with pale brown. 



Progress toward Maturity. — After the first moult, the 

 upper part of the head and the nape are light brownish-red, 

 the smaller wing-coverts are tipped with light red ; the quills 

 are darker than at first ; but the general colour of the plumage 

 is still deep chocolate. It appears that as the bird advances in 

 age, the brown of the upper parts assumes a lighter tint, the 

 tail becomes tinged with grey, its inner webs lighter, the pri- 

 mary quills, on the contrary, darker, and the white on the 

 head and neck purer and more extended. In extreme old age, 

 as M. Temminck alleges, or merely in maturity, as others say, 

 the secondary quills and tail-feathers become light ash-grey; but 

 this only in the male, which thus tends to approximate in co- 

 louring to the males of the other species. 1 have before me a 

 specimen from India in this state ; but I have not seen one 

 killed in Britain that shewed more than a tinge of grey on the 

 tail. The individual here alluded to has the upper parts cho- 

 colate brown, the head and hind-neck yellowish-red streaked 

 with brown ; the secondary quills ash-grey ; the tail very pale 

 ash-grey, fading almost into white on the lateral feathers ; 

 seven of the primary quills black ; the throat and part of the 

 fore-neck yellowish-red, the rest of the lower parts brownish- 

 red. In its proportions it agrees with another specimen from 

 the same country, which exhibits the ordinary state of plumage, 

 the general colour being very dark chocolate ; the head, neck, 

 and throat yellowish-white ; the cheeks and ear-coverts brown. 



