334 FALCONID^ BUTEO 



p. 8 (1867) ; Gurney in Andcrsson's B. Damaraland, p. 12 (1872) ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. M. i, p. 179 (1874) ; id. cd. La yard's B. S. Afr. 

 pp. 30, 797 (1875-84) ; Dresser, B. Europ. v, p. 457, pi. 332 (1875) ; 

 Gurney, Ibis, 1876, p. 866 ; Ayres, Ibis, 1877, p. 340, 1880, p. 257, 

 1886, p. 284 [Potchefstroom] ; Shelley and Ayres, Ibis, 1882, p. 238 

 [near Mafeking] ; Symonds, Ibis, 1887, p. 326 [Kroonstad] ; Dis- 

 tant, Transvaal,^. 56(1892); Fled; Journ. OruitJi. 1894, p. 393 

 [Damaraland] ; Bendall, Ibis, 1896, p. 166 [Barberton] ; Shelley, 

 B. Afr. i, p. 150 (1896) ; Beichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 594 (1901). 



Description. Adult female. — General colour above, paler brown 

 with darker shaft streaks and a good deal of white about the nape 

 owing to most of the feathers having concealed white bases ; wing 

 feathers darker at tips, paler at the base, white banded with dark 

 brown on the inner webs ; tail shaded with rufous and with at 

 least eleven darker transverse bands ; below, dusky brown, the 

 throat streaked, the abdomen mottled or irregularly cross-barred 

 with white ; thighs, rufous brown. There is a good deal of variation 

 in the plumage of this bird ; apparently due to a certain extent to 

 moult, as the freshly changed bird is much darker than one just 

 before the change. 



Iris light brown ; bill black ; cere and gape pale yellow ; legs 

 greenish-yellow ; claws black. 



Length 22-0 ; wing 14-5 ; tail 8-0 ; tarsus 2-9 ; culmen 1-35. 



The male is smaller ; wing 13-5 ; tarsus 2-55. 



Young birds are as a rule paler above, sometimes with lighter 

 edges to the feathers, the tail shows no trace of rufous but is con- 

 spicuously banded, the under parts are white with a varying number 

 of brown streaks ; thighs brown, more or less mottled with paler. 



Distribution. — The Steppe Buzzard is a widely spread bird ; its 

 range includes South Europe, the whole of Africa and western and 

 southern Asia as far east as Burma. In South Africa so far as my 

 records inform me, it is only found in summer from November to 

 April, and is probably a migrant from the northern winter. It is 

 found throughout the Colony, the Orange Eiver Colony, the Trans- 

 vaal, and German south-west Africa, but has not hitherto been 

 noticed in Natal or Ehodesia. 



The following are the chief recorded localities : Cape Colony — 

 Cape division, November to February, Caledon, December, Eobert- 

 son, February, near Upington on the Orange river, January (S. A. 

 Mus.) ; Knysna, October (Marais), Albany division (Grahamstown 

 Mus.), near Mafeking, January (Ayres) ; Orange Eiver Colony — Near 

 Kroonstad in summer (Symonds) ; Transvaal — Near Potchefstroom, 



