BUZZARD. 37 
spotted with brown on each feather. The legs, which are 
rather short, are feathered about a third down, the bare part, 
which is yellow, being covered nearly all round, but principally 
in front, with a series of scales. The toes, bright yellow, and 
short—the third being the longest, and united to the fourth 
by a tolerably large web; the others are nearly of equal length. 
In specimens of this bird of dark plumage, the colour of the 
legs is correspondingly darker than in those of a lighter hue. 
The toes are reticulated to about half their length; claws, 
black, or nearly black, and though very sharp, not very 
strongly hooked. 
The female is considerably larger than the male, measuring 
from one foot nine to one foot ten inches in length, and nearly 
five feet across the wings; sometimes as much as full five feet. 
The young birds, while in the nest, are of a lighter colour 
than the old ones, and the tips of the feathers are paler than 
the rest—the whole plumage being variegated with brown and 
white, and the latter predominant on the back of the neck. 
As they advance towards maturity, the plumage at each moult 
becomes gradually of a darker hue, and at the same time the 
white or yellowish white markings on the throat and lower 
parts become more apparent and distinct. The iris is deep 
brown in the immature state, and becomes of its permanent 
colour when the bird is adult. 
‘A beautiful variety,’ says Mr. Meyer, ‘of which there is a 
specimen in the Zoological Museum, is also occasionally seen, 
but is comparatively rare. The ground of the plumage in 
this variety is white, tinged in various parts with yellow. 
The head is marked down the centre of the feathers with 
narrow streaks of brown; a few of the feathers on the breast 
are marked with arrow-shaped spots of the same colour, the 
smaller coverts of the wings the same. The quill feathers are 
dark brown towards the tips; the tail is crossed on a white 
ground with dark brown bars, seven or eight in number, the 
bar nearest to the white tip broader than the rest. In the 
white variety the eyes also partake of the light colour of the 
plumage, and are pearl-coloured, or greyish white; the cere 
and feet are also lighter in the same proportion, being a pale 
lemon yellow.’ 
