240 A Description of the Birds. 
of them with blackish brown centres, and tawny edges and 
tips. Below pale tawny or clear chesnut, with the throat 
and sides of the neck marked by longitudinal black blotches ; 
primary wing feathers black, with more or less of a hoary 
tinge upon outer vanes ; secondaries blackish brown, with the 
inner vanes broadly edged towards quills with grayish white ; 
tail reddish gray, with each feather crossed by ten or eleven 
narrow blackish transverse bands, and with a reddish white 
tip ; the inner vanes towards quills nearly pure white. When 
viewed below the whole of the feathers appear nearly of an 
uniform white. Length of tail eight inches. 
This species occurs throughout the whole of the colony, 
and also, at least to a considerable distance, beyond it. It is 
‘usually seen in the vicinity of inhabitated places, and generally 
resorts to trees or bushes about such spots, to rest during the 
night. The male and female are most commonly seen 
together, or at least in the same neighbourhood. Their food 
consists of the smaller quadrupeds, birds, lizards, &c. and 
they very often prove destructive to the poultry of the Afri- 
can colonists. The female builds her nest upon trees com- 
monly at no great distance from the resorts of man ; construct 
it externally of dry twigs, leaves, &c., internally of feathers, 
hair, and such like materials, and lays from three to four eggs, 
which are about the size of those of the common domestic 
hen. 
Obs.—As scarcely any two specimens of this buzzard ex- 
hibit even nearly the same tints or distribution of colors, it is 
difficult to give such a description as will enable the reader 
to detect the bird if found in the intermediate stages between 
youth and maturity, when the diversities are most strikingly 
exhibited. In specimens a little advanced, the most ready 
means of detecting the species will be a reference to the tail ; 
which, in all, after a certain age, has the ground color of a 
deep chesnut or ferruginous red; and each feather either 
marked by a black blotch near the tip, or by transverse 
black bands. When less advanced, the ground color, though 
it be not as just described, yet evidently inclines to that, and 
exhibits, particularly towards the quill, a strong ferruginous 
tinge. The inner vanes of the feathers, particularly towards 
quills, will also be found to have a considerable share of 
white, more or less pure, and the whole of the under parts 
of the body to be of a rufous or tawny tint, of different depth 
in different parts; and only, if at all, variegated by irregular 
blackish or brownish black blotches. 
ButrEoO LAGOPUS. 
Falco Lagopus, Gmel, Syst, 1, p. 260, sp. 58.—Lath. Ind. 
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