27. BUTEo. 187 



belly ochre, slightly spotted with sooty brown, the under tail-coverts 

 narrowly streaked with the latter colour ; flanks sooty brown, mar- 

 gined with ochre and mottled at base with white spots ; thighs sooty 

 brown, with broad ochraceous margins ; quills, as far as developed, 

 blackish brown, the secondaries more chocolate, barred with blackish 

 brown on the inner web, very distinctly on the secondaries, where 

 the interspaces arc ashy white ; tail brown, tipped with pale rufous, 

 and barred with blackish brown. 



Young ifullij f/rown). Answering almost precisely to the foregoing 

 description ; quills dark brown, secondaries with ashy white tips, 

 white for the greater part of the inner web, the primaries inclining 

 above to ashy brown on the basal half, with three cross bars of dark 

 brown ; tail ashy brown, with pale rufous tips, crossed with ten bars 

 of darker brown, the basal ones less strongly defined and merged 

 together, the interspaces strongly shaded with rufous, and mottled 

 with dark brown vermiculations. 



Adult male. Above ashy brown, the scapulars and wing-coverts 

 rather paler and inclining to whitish on their margins ; the nape 

 slightly streaked with white, as also the forehead and sides of the 

 face, more especially the hind part of the cheeks ; under surface of 

 body yellowish white, the flanks and thighs more or less uniform 

 brown, mottled with white spots near the base of the feathers, and 

 slightly margined with rufous, the throat very narrowly streaked 

 with brown, the breast more broadly, but the marks here of unequal 

 width and more or less narrowing or breaking up, the abdomen again 

 narrowly streaked ; under tail-coverts buflfy white, with a few sub- 

 terminal spots of brown ; primaries dark brown, externally shaded 

 with ashy grey, and crossed with bars of darker brown, less distinct 

 on the secondaries, which are paler brown like the back ; all the 

 quills white for two thirds of the inner web ; tail ashy brown, slightly 

 rufescent towards the tip, and crossed with twelve or thirteen bands 

 of darker brown ; cere yellow ; bill bluish black, darker towards 

 tip ; feet yellow ; iris yellowish brown. Total length 22 inches, 

 culmen 1-45, wing 15, tail 9, tarsus 3-1. 



Adult female. Similar to the male, but rather clearer brown and 

 a little more rufescent, especially on the chest and thighs, which are 

 more uniform than in the male described. Total length 23 inches, 

 wing 16-5, tail 9-5, tarsus 3-1. 



Hab. Europe generally, but replaced in N. Africa and in Eastern 

 Europe, from the Volga districts and Southern Ural, by B. deser- 

 torum. 



