64 FALCONID^. 



wing-coverts, bright brick-red ; facial ruff pale bluish grey ; quills 

 bluish grey, the primaries browner at tip and on inner web, the 

 secondaries barred with brown and tipped with white, the subter- 

 minal bar broadest ; lower surface of wing pale ash- colour, the bars 

 more distinct on inner web, which is washed with pale rufous on the 

 primaries ; iipper tail-coverts deep ashy brown, tipped and spotted 

 on both webs with white, sometimes forming bars across, the outer 

 ones barred with rufous and white ; tail bluish ashy, tipped with 

 white, and crossed with seven bands of black ; under surface of body 

 rufous, sprinkled all over with rounded white spots, the under wing- 

 coverts and axiUaries similarly coloured ; the breast less plentifully 

 spotted and incHning more or less to ashy grey, the spots on the 

 under tail-coverts larger and taking the form of bars, the thighs also 

 narrowly barred with white ; cere olive-yellow ; biU blue at base, 

 black on culmen and at tip ; legs yellow ; iris yellow. Total length 

 22 inches, culmen 1-25, wing 15-9, tail 10-8, tarsus 3'5. 



Adult female. Larger than the male. Total length 24-5 inches, 

 wing 18, tail 11-5, tarsus 4-2. 



Ohs. Examples vary somewhat in colouring, especially in the size 

 and number of white spots below. The Cape-York bird {vide infra) 

 has more grey on the crown than the others, and the facial ruff be- 

 low the throat is spotted with white. The breast has less ashy grey 

 than usual ; and the white spots are of large size, and continued all 

 over the chest. The bars on the tail vary, probably with age, some 

 specimens not having more than six. 



Hah. Eastern Australia, from New South Wales to Cape York ; 

 Celebes. 



Purchased. 



Major-Gen. Hardwicke [P.]. 



Lady Carington [P.]. 



Earl of Derby [P.]. 



J. Gould, Esq. 



J. Gould, Esq. [P.]. 



J. Gould, Esq. 



Sir T. Mitchell [P.]. 



A. R. Wallace, Esq. [CI. 



A. R. Wallace, Esq. [CJ. 



10. Circus pygargus. 



The Ring-tail, Albin, Birds, ii. pi. 5 (1738)*. 



Falco pygargus, Linn. S. N. i. p. 148 (1766, ex Albin). 



Falco cinerarias, Mont. Trans. Linn. Soc. ix. p. 188 (1808). 



Falco hyemalis, Penn. Brit. Zool. i. p. 243 (1812) ; Yarr. Brit. B. i. 



p. 100 (1843). 

 Circus cinerarius, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mam. ^c. Brit. Mus. p. 9 (1816) ; 



* Albin',1 description of the hen Ring-tail is scarcely clear enough to indicate 

 the species ; but the description of the male and the figure clearly refer to Circus 

 cinerarius of Montagu. I am also unable to identify his " Cock Ring-tail or 

 Hen Harrier" (iii. pi. 3, 1740). This is possibly C. cyaneus, to which it has 

 always been referred. 



