394 FALCONID^. 



crown, nape, and some of the vving-coverts ; the white bases of the 

 feathers on the head and nape are less conspicuous in general than 

 in B.ferox; sides of head paler than crown, usually more or less 

 streaked brown, the streaks generally forming a dark or blackish 

 moustachial stripe from the gape, and frequently another streak 

 running back from the eye ; primary-quills with long dark brown 

 or blackish ends, all the remainder white beneath the wing, brown 

 on the outer web above, rufous or white on the inner and more or 

 less barred and mottled ; secondaries chiefly brown outside, inner 

 webs partly white or rufous, whitish inside, and with dark cross- 

 bands ; tail brown or sometimes rufous above, whitish below, more 

 or less distinctly barred, the bars variable in number and breadth, 

 the last generally but not always broadest. Lower parts white or 

 buff or (rarely) rufous, the throat with dark streaks, and the breast 

 and abdomen somewhat irregularly spotted or marked with brown ; 

 the flanks and thigh-coverts and sometimes the abdomen all brown, 

 or the two latter brown with more or less indistinct white or buff 

 bars. 



Typical B. plumijies is dark smoky or chocolate-brown through- 

 out, except the bases of the quills, which are white or whity-brown 

 mottled and barred darker, and the tail, which is banded with 

 lighter brown. There are also in some skins a few partly con- 

 cealed white spots on the feathers of the abdomen. Some specimens 

 have the head, neck, and breast rufous-brown, and some are inter- 

 mediate in colour between the fuligiuous phase and the ordinary 

 colouring. 



Bill black, bluish grey towards the base ; cere yellow ; irides 

 brown ; legs and feet yellow ; the tarsus feathered in front from 

 halfway down or rather less to two-thirds, generally scutellate in 

 front below the feathering, but occasionally reticulate. 



Length of female about 20; tail 9; wing 15*5; tarsus 2*8; 

 mid-toe without claw 1"5 ; bill from gape 1 "47: males are less, 

 wing 14'5. 



As a rule Eastern Asiatic and Himalayan birds {B. j^iumijies or 

 japonicus) are distinguished from European {B. vulgaris) by having 

 the tarsus feathered farther down in front, and often by being 

 more rufous ; whilst African specimens (B, desertorum) are smaller 

 and on an average decidedly more rufous. The feathering of the 

 tarsus, however, was shown by Hume to be very variable ; coloration 

 in these Buzzards affords no constant distinction; and some Southern 

 Indian birds are even smaller than African, as Hume has shown, 

 and have a very naked tarsus. In fact there is no distinct character 

 by which B. vulgaris, B. desertorum, and B. plumipes can be dis- 

 tinguished ; they are mere races imperfectly differentiated, and all 

 three are represented by typical examples amongst Indian collec- 

 tions. I do not think they should be regarded as separate species. 



Distribution. The greater part of Europe, Asia, and Africa. 

 This Buzzard is found throughout the Himalayas, and in the 

 Nilgiris and other high ranges of Southern India ; it is probably 

 resident on the Himalayas, but, so far as is known, only a cold- 



