214 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



174. CIRCUS MELANOLEUCOS (Pennant). 

 PIED MARSH HAWK. 



Falco melanoleucos Penkant, Ind. Zool. ( 17C9), 2, pi. 2. 



Circus melanoleucus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874). 1, 61; Hand- 

 List (1899), 1, 245; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1895), 3, 385; 

 Gates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 237; McGregor and Worcester, 

 Hand-List (190(5), 41; McGregor, Phil. Jour. 8ci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 

 322, pi. 1. 



Bantayan {McGregor); Basilan (.l/e«**!s) ; Bohol (McGregor); Calayan (.1/c- 

 Gregor) ; Guimaras (Steere Exp.) ; Luzon (Sfeere Exp., ^Yhitehcad) ; Mindanao 

 (Steere Exp., Celestino) ; Negros (Bourns t£- Worcester, Keay) ; Sibay (McGregor 

 d- Worcester) ; Sulu {GuHlemard) ; Ticao (McGregor) . Eastern Siberia and Mon- 

 golia ; in winter to China, northeastern Indian Peninsula, and Indo-Chinese 

 countries. 



''Adult male. — Upper parts glossy black ; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 white, the latter with two or three broad cross-bars of black or ashy 

 gray, the former also shaded with gray; wing-coverts silvery gray, mar- 

 gined with white, with a 1)road band of black feathers extending from 

 the bend of wing parallel with its margin and joining the median coverts, 

 which are also black; primaries black; primary-coverts and secondaries 

 silvery gray, except the innermost, which are black; tail entirely silvery 

 gray, tipped with white, below and on the inner webs white; sides of 

 face and neck, throat, and chest glossy black; rest of under surface, in- 

 cluding under wing- and tail-coverts, pure white. Bill and cere black; 

 feet yellow; iris yellow. Length, 457; culmen, 25; wing, 356; tail, 216; 

 tarsus, 76." (Shm-pe.) 



"Adult female. — Above dark brown, the feathers of the crown and neck 

 with rufous edges, those of the nape broadly bordered with white; a 

 well-marked ruff of small white or huffy white feathers with brown 

 shaft-stripes ; around eyes whitish ; cheeks and ear-coverts dirty white 

 or pale rufous with brown streaks; smaller coverts along forearm white 

 (in younger birds rufous) with blackish brown shaft-stripes, median 

 coverts brown with gray or white spots and bars, larger coverts dusky 

 gray with a broad subterminal blackish band and another near the base; 

 primaries outside blackish brown; secondaries gray, with blackish cross- 

 bands, beneath all are grayish or whitish with dark l)ands ; upper tail- 

 coverts white, sometimes with rufous-brown drops or bands ; tail gray 

 with dark brown cross-bands; lower parts white, with dark brown shaft- 

 stripes, broad on the tbroat and breast, narrower and sometimes disap- 

 pearing on the abdomen. 



"Young birds are more uniform brown above than the adult female, 

 and have no gray on the wings or tail, which are brown witli darker 

 bands; the ruff is ill-marked at tlie sides, but there is a large white brown- 

 streaked nuchal patch and another patcli of buff-edged brown feathers 



