31 CIRCUS CYANEUS. 



the first autumnal moult, acquires in a considerable 

 measure the plumage of the adult. Montagu, who first 

 ascertained by actual observation the change which 

 it undergoes, thus describes one which he had reared 

 from the nest, and which he killed in the middle of 

 October for the purpose of preserving it. " In this 

 state the plumage of the ring-tail, or female, still re- 

 mains about the neck, the smaller coverts of the wings, 

 the thighs and part of the belly, intermixed with the 

 male plumage : the top of the head and wreath have 

 also a mixture of the feathers of both sexes : the quills, 

 scapulars, and tail, are completely masculine ; in the 

 last of these are a few small broken bars of cinereous 

 brown, on a white ground, in the three outer feathers 

 the exterior margin cinereous grey ; the six middle fea- 

 thers are almost wholly grey, and the markings are 

 very obscure beneath." From the account here given 

 of the hen harrier, it is quite clear that the change of 

 plumage is effected in the autumn of the year after it 

 leaves the nest, and not in the same year. 



I have the skin of a male, shot in October of the 

 present year, which, with the plumage of the adult, re- 

 tains a few of the brown feathers on the head, ruff, and 

 wings. The new scapulars are dark greyish-brown, 

 as are the extremities of the inner secondaries. The 

 tail is faintly barred, but the bars on the inner webs of 

 the wings have disappeared. 



Tlie females, as they advance in age, acquire a grey- 

 ish tinge on their dark brown parts, while the light 

 red changes to light greyish-yellow ; the bars of the 

 wings become more apparent, because their intervals 

 assume a lighter tint, but they also become narrower, 



