^90 CIRCUS ^RUGINOSUS. 



convex, the festoon rather prominentj the tip perpen- 

 dicular at the extremity. The cere is rather large, its 

 margin forming a convex curve before the nostrils, be- 

 low which it slopes backwards to the angle of the 

 mouth. The lower mandible has the angle short and 

 broad, the dorsal line convex, the back broadly rounded, 

 the sides convex, the edges inflected, the end obliquely 

 rounded. 



The eyes are large ; the eyelids feathered, and fur- 

 nished with ciliary bristles ; the nostrils ovato-oblong, 

 rather large, having a ridge or plate internally from the 

 upper edge, and placed in the fore part of the cere ; the 

 aperture of the ear broadly elliptical and large. 



The tarsi, which are feathered anteriorly about a 

 fourth of their length, are slender and compressed, with 

 an anterior row of eighteen scutella, a series of about 

 ten scutella behind, the sides and upper and lower hind 

 parts reticulate. The toes are of moderate length and 

 thickness, the first shortest, the fourth a little longer 

 than the second, the third much longer ; they are co- 

 vered above with scutella, unless towards the base, 

 where there are transverse series of small square scales ; 

 the fourth is connected with the third by a basal web. 

 The claws are long, very acute, curved in about the 

 fifth of a circle, flat beneath, that of the third toe with 

 an inner sharp edge, the first and second largest. On 

 the first toe are five, on the second four, on the third 

 fifteen, on the fourth ten, scutella. 



The plumage is soft, rather compact on the back, 

 slightly glossed, the feathers broad and rounded, those 

 of the abdomen and outer side of the tibiae loose. There 

 is a very indistinct ruff, composed of narrow, slightly 



