CIRCUS. 213 



streaks of reddish brown which are also present on flanks and abdomen; 

 primaries black, some of them barred with ashy white; wing-coverts 

 brown with less white than the adult; primary-coverts and alula ashy 

 white but with blackish brown bars; under wing-coverts white,, streaked 

 with blackish brown; axillars white, streaked and barred with reddish 

 brown. Length, 533; wing, 400; tail, 235; culmen from base, 32; 

 tarsus, 80; middle toe with claw, fil. 



"Adult female. — Above brown slightly shaded with ashy, the dorsal 

 feathers obsoletely margined with dull rufous; crown and hind neck 

 tawny-buff, paler on the neck, all the feathers mesially streaked with 

 brown; scapulars and wing-coverts margined and barred with tawny or 

 fulvous, the least wing-coverts more conspicuously margined with rufous ; 

 quills brown, narrowly tipped with whitish, externally shaded with ashy 

 gray, the secondaries less distinctly, and all barred across with darker 

 brown; under surface of wing white, the dark bars showing very dis- 

 tinctly; lower back and rump bro\s'n, the feathers distinctly tipped with 

 pale rufous; upper tail-coverts pure white; tail ashy gray, tipped with 

 fulvous and crossed with five blackish bands, the subterminal one much 

 the broadest, the ashy gray interspaces inclining to or replaced by pale 

 tawny on the outer feathers; lores as well as a distinct eyebrow and ear- 

 coverts huffy white; sides of face and of neck, as well as the facial ruff, 

 rufous-buff streaked with dark brown ; under surface of body creamy buff, 

 with central pointed marks of rufous-brown to the feathers, more distinct 

 on the fore neck and under wing- and tail-coverts; flank-feathers and 

 axillars rufous-brown, with large rounded spots of creamy buff on both 

 webs; under wing-coverts and thighs creamy buff, with irregular central 

 streaks of rufous-brown occupying the major part of the greater under 

 wing-coverts. Length, 584; wing, 394; tail, 279; tarsus, 79." (Sharpe.) 



"Adult female. — Brown above, the feathers throughout with pale 

 rufous edges; tail-coverts white and rufous; tail with about six dark 

 cross-bands, which disappear in old individuals; lower parts buff, with 

 broad rufous-brown shaft-stripes. The quills are dark brown but become 

 grayish in old birds. 



"Young birds so closely resemble those of C. aruginosus as to be 

 indistinguishable at times. The pale head and neck-feathers are always 

 striated in C. spilonotus, but the body, wings, and tail are uniform brown 

 or variegated with buff on the wing-coverts, back, and breast. Generally, 

 though not invariably, traces of bars will be found on some of the tail- 

 feathers of C. spilonotus.. but this occasionally happens in C. cnuginosus 

 also, 



"Lengtli, of male, 508: tail, 235: wing, 394: tarsus, 89; tail of fonuile, 

 254; wing, 419: tarsus. 94." (Hlanfonl) 



