FALCONID^ 



CIKCUS 369 



with pale rufous, axillaries and under wing-coverts white also 

 streaked with pale rufous. 



Iris clear yellow ; bill black ; cere greenish-yellow ; feet yellow. 



Length 18-5 ; wing 14-5 ; tail 8-0 ; culnien 0-95 ; tarsus 2-25. 



The female is very dark brown above with fulvous edgings to 

 some of the feathers, the head and neck including the facial rutf 

 streaked with pale rufous ; quills dark brown, the primaries shaded 

 with gray externally ; upper tail-coverts white ; tail brown, tipped 

 with paler brown, crossed by three bands of lighter brown or some- 

 times ashy; on the outer feathers these lighter bands tend to 

 become white, especially on the inner web ; below, rufous or buffy 

 white with darker centres to the feathers especially on the breast. 



Iris hazel ; bill black ; cere dull yellow ; feet yellow. Length 

 19-0 ; wing 15-3 ; tail 8-7. Very old females perhaps become grey 

 plumaged like the males. 



A young male in the South African Museum is like the female 

 but more uniform ; the central tail-feathers are nearly uniform, the 

 others transversely banded with pale rufous ; the primaries below 

 are dirty white transversely barred with black; the lower surface 

 clear tawny with a few central streaks of darker. 



In all states of plumage the fifth primary -is not emarglnated 

 along its outer web and the emargination of the second is about an 

 inch beyond the primary coverts. 



Distribution. — The breeding range of Montagu's Harrier extends 

 . over central and southern Europe, western Asia as far as Turkestan 

 and northern Africa ; occasionally it nests even in England, where 

 formerly it was much more abundant. During the northern winter 

 it migrates southwards to India, Palestine, Abyssinia, and South 

 Africa; hitherto it does not appear to have been noticed in the 

 countries intervening, though doubtless it occurs there. 



It is nowhere very common in South Africa, though widely 

 spread from the Cape division of the Colony to Mashonaland. Its 

 occurrence in Natal is doubtful; Captain Eeid believed that he saw 

 one on the wing between Colenso aud Ladysmith on November 20. 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony — Cape, 

 Swellendam and Bathurst divisions (Layard) ; Orange Eiver Colony 

 — Kroonstad in summer (Symonds); Transvaa^. — Potchefstroom, 

 March (Ayres), Barberton, January (Kendall), Lyd'enburg (Barratt) ; 

 Bechuanaland — Harts river, February (Ayres) ; German south-west 

 Africa — Otjimbinqueand Ondonga (Andersson), Omaruru, December 



24 VOL. III. 



