72 BRITISH BIRDS. 
brown ; and the underparts of the dark form are also uniform brown. The 
underparts of the light form are nearly white, intermediate forms being 
barred and spotted. The female of neither form has the grey head, that of 
the dark form otherwise resembling the male, and that of the light form 
otherwise resembling a male intermediate form. Adult birds have always 
three conspicuous nearly black bars on the tail, which is brown; and 
between these are rudiments of pale bars in both sexes, at all ages, and in 
both forms. In young birds the feathers of the upper parts have pale 
edges, with the under surface streaked instead of barred in the light form, 
and uniform in the dark form. According to the opinions of the best. 
authorities on the subject, there is no important intermediate stage 
between the young and the adult. The beak is black; legs and toes 
yellow, claws black; irides yellow in the adult, but hazel in the young. 
It is not known that the two forms of this bird have in any way different 
geographical areas of distribution; but far too little attention has been 
paid to this subject by the ornithologist, who, for the most part, has 
ignored the existence of local forms— 
A Honey-Buzzard, stout or slim, 
A Honey-Buzzard is to him, 
And it is nothing more. 
WHIYMPER. 
