36 BUZZARD. 
forty ounces; length, about one foot eight inches. The general 
colour of the bill is black, or leaden grey, yellow at the edges, 
and greyish blue where it joins the cere. The cere, which is bare 
above and below, but bristled on the sides, is of a greenish 
yellow, darker in specimens of darker colour; iris, yellowish 
brown, or pale yellow, but it is found to vary in some degree, 
according to the general tone of the colour of the bird, and 
sometimes approaches to orange. ‘The head, which is very wide 
and flattened on the top, is streaked with darker and lghter 
shades of brown; occasionally with yellowish white; neck, 
short and wide in appearance—so much so, as, in connection 
with the shape of the head and the general loose character 
of the plumage, together with the habit of these birds of 
prowling for food in the evening, to have led some to suppose 
that an approximation is furnished by the Buzzards to the Owls. 
The colour of the feathers of the neck is dusky grey, very 
much streaked with brown; chin and throat, white, or nearly 
white. The breast, greyish white, or yellowish white, also 
very much streaked with darker and lighter shades of brown— 
some of the feathers being white, with brown spots in the centre 
of each. In some specimens the breast is nearly as dark as 
the back, in others it is belted beneath with a broad band of 
a purple tint, and occasionally is entirely variegated with reddish 
brown. The back, dark brown, sometimes shewing a purple 
hue. Wings, large, measuring from four feet to four feet and 
a half in extent. They are rounded at the ends, so much so 
that this feature is not only clearly discernible, but a distin- 
guishing mark of the bird when on the wing: when closed 
they reach nearly to the end of the tail. The tips are deep 
brown, shaded at the base with pure white. The wings beneath 
are lighter, being mottled with white and brown—they are 
crossed irregularly with dark bars: greater and lesser wing 
coverts, dark brown; primaries, brownish black; greater under 
wing coverts, and lesser under wing coverts, dark brown. The 
tail, which has six, eight, ten, or twelve narrow bars of alternate 
dark brown and pale greyish brown, the last dark bar being 
the widest, is tolerably long, rather wide, and slightly rounded 
at the end: the tips of the feathers are pale reddish brown. 
The under side of the tail is of a general greyish white, barred 
with dark brown. Its whole appearance is often extremely 
beautiful—the upper surface being varied with a fine grey brown 
of different shades, and reddish yellow. Upper tail coverts, 
dark brown; lower tail coverts, yellowish white, or white 
