374 FALCONID^ CIKCUS 



552, Circus seruginosus. Marsh Harrier. 



Falco seruginosus, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th. ccl. i, p. 130 (1766). 

 Circus seruginosus, Ayres, Ibis, 1871, p. 147 [Potchefstroom] ; Sliarpe, 

 Cat. B. M. i, p. 69 (1874) ; id. eel. LayarcVs B. 8. Afr. p. 16 (1875) ; 

 Dresser, B. Eur. v, p. 415, pis. 326, 827 (1878) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 

 153 (1896) ; Eeichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 539 (1901). 



Description. Adult male. — Head creamy-white streaked with 

 umber-brown, facial ruff indistinct, mantle brown ; primaries 

 blackish, rest of the wings and tail silvery-grey ; upper tail- 

 coverts white washed with grey and tinged with rufous ; below, 

 buff striped with brown on the breast and with chestnut on the 

 belly and thighs, under wing-coverts and axillaries uniform and 

 buffy-white. 



Iris bright yellow ; bill blackish ; cere greenish-yellow ; claws 

 black. 



Length 22-5 ; wing 16-0 ; tail 10 ; tarsus 3-4 ; culmen 1*55. 



The female has the tail and under parts brown and is slightly 

 larger, length 23-0 ; wing 17-0 ; tail 11-0. 



Young birds are chocolate-brown throughout, but in the males 

 the entire crown of the head is bufBsh-white while the females have 

 a yellowish patch streaked with brown on the nape only. 



Distribution. — The Marsh Harrier is found throughout the greater 

 part of Europe, north Africa and the temperate portions of Asia, as 

 far as Turkestan and Kashmir. Though partially resident, some of 

 the birds migrate southwards during the northern winter to India, 

 Ceylon, and the eastern half of Africa from Abyssinia, where it is 

 fairly common in the winter months, to German east Africa, Angola, 

 and the Transvaal. 



In South Africa it must be either very rare or have been mis- 

 taken for the South African Marsh Harrier, as it has only been 

 once recorded by Ayres, who states that he shot a single specimen 

 (an immature male in white-headed plumage now in the Norwich 

 Museum) in December, 1869, while it was hunting in a marsh. Mr. 

 G. A. K. Marshall, however, informs me that he has recently 

 obtained an example in white-headed plumage which was shot in 

 the neighbourhood of Salisbury, in Mashonaland. 



553. Circus ranivorus. South African Harrier. 



Le Grenouillard, Levaillant, Ois. d'Afr. i, p. 95, pi. 23 (1799). 

 Falco ranivorus, Baud. Traite ii, p. 170 (1800). 

 Circus levaillantii. Smith, S. Afr. Quart. Journ. \, p. 387 (1830). 

 Circus ranivorus, Smith, S. Afr. Quart. Journ. i, p. 386 (1830) ; Grill, K 



