BUTEO. 85 



inchos, extent of wing 80, bill aloug the ridge o 91, along the edge 

 of lower uiandibie o'oo, its height TOG, wing from flexure 27'5, tail 

 12 inches^ tarsus 4*5 inches. 



Hah. — Sind, Punjab^ N. W. Provinces, Oudh, Beloochistau Coast, 

 and Persia, On the Indus and. the larger lakes or dhunds throughout 

 Rind, especially on the Munchur Lake, it is very common, also on the 

 Jhelum, Chenab and Sutlej rivers. Sharpe gives its habitat as 

 Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, the whole of Europe and Northern 

 Asia, Kamschatka and Japan, extending into China as far as Amoy. 



Sub-Family, BUTEONIN^. 



Bill small, moderate, tip hooked. Wings moderate ; tail generally 

 short ; tarsi with scutoe in front and behind ; tibia longer than tarsus. 

 Outer toe connected to middle toe by interdigital membrane. 



Gen. Buteo. — Cuv. 



Bill short with hooked tip ; margin of upper mandible slightly 

 festooned; nostrils oval. Lores clothed with bristle-like feathers. 

 AVings long; 3rd, 4th and 5th quills subequal, and longest; inner webs 

 of 1st four quills strongly notched. Tarsus bare or feathered on the 

 upper third only. 



Buteo ferox, S. G. Gmeh'n, N. Comm. Ac. Pcfrop. xv. p. 442 ; 

 Hume, Bovgli Notes, ii. p. 274 ; Stray Feathers, iv, p. 362 (1 873) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. Ace. p, 176. Buteo canescens, Hodgs. Bene/. Sport. Mag. 1836, p. 

 180; Jerd. B. of Lid. p. 88, No. 45. Buteo 'longipes, Jerd. Madr. 

 Journ. X. p. 75. B. aquiliuus, Jerd. B. of hid. i. p. 90. — The Long- 

 legged Bdzzard. 



The plumage of this large and handsome Buzzard varies considerably 

 in all its different stages. This circumstance has led to its being 

 described as canescens, Hodgs.; longipes, ^Qvdion -, rnfinus, Rupp. ; 

 leucurus, '^axxm. ; fuUginosus, Hume. Mr. Hume in his scrap book goes 

 very minutely into the differences obser^ved in the plumage of its 

 various stages, and states at page 281, that "the great difficulty we 

 meet with in assigning any chronological value to these changes is that 

 the changes on the upper surface do not correspond with those on the 

 lower. It is easy enough, he says, to arrange any number of speci- 

 mens, in what, looking at the upper or under surface only, appears a 

 very perfect series in which no links are wanting, but directly we turn 

 the specimens, over, all traces of any arrangement seem to vanish," 

 The question as to which is the adult plumage seems yet a vexed one, 

 the Buzzard being known to breed in plumage which has been describ- 

 ed as immature, but it is probable that the fuliginous pluixage {B. 

 fnliginosus) of Hume is that of very old birds, in which the whole 

 head, neck, ear-coverts, cheeks, throat and breast is a deep umber 

 brown, indistinctly margined with rufous. 



Male. — Feathers of the forehead and crown of the head rufescent brown 

 with stiff dark shafts. A narrow dark'line in front of the superciliary 



