120 MARSH HARRIER. 
brown; under tail coverts, the same, each feather streaked with 
dark brown. Legs, long and yellow, feathered to within three 
inches of the foot; toes, long and yellow; claws, black and 
slender, and not much hooked; the outer and middle ones are 
united by a membrane, and the latter 1s somewhat dilated on 
the inner edge. 
Female; weight, twenty-eight ounces and a half; length, 
from one foot ten inches to two feet; bill, dusky or bluish 
black; cere, yellow; iris, yellow; Selby says dark brown; but 
this must be a young bird. Head, yellowish, sometimes streaked 
with brown. ‘The neck is surrounded by a ruff of stiff feathers; 
nape and chin, as in the male; throat, as the head; breast, 
reddish brown; back, dark brown. The wings expand to the 
width of four feet five or six inches. Greater and lesser 
wing coverts, primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, greater and 
lesser under wing coverts, tail, and tail coverts, legs, toes, 
and claws, as in the male. . 
The young in the first year, formerly described as a separate 
species by the name of the Moor Buzzard, have the bill bluish 
black; cere, pale yellowish green; iris, dark brown; crown of 
the head, dark cream-colour. Neck, nape, and chin, brown; 
throat, yellowish white or light rust-colour; breast and back, 
dark reddish brown with a metallic tint. Greater wing coverts, 
sometimes tipped with white; lesser wing coverts, primaries, 
secondaries, and tertiaries, as the back. Larger and _ lesser 
under wing coverts, brown of a lighter shade; tail underneath, 
pale ash grey; tail coverts, as the back. Legs and toes, pale 
yellowish green; claws, black. In their second summer the 
plumage becomes more rufous in some parts, the tail lighter 
coloured, and on the ruff and the shoulders, and front of the 
neck, some yellowish white spots shew themselves; and an ash 
grey gradually spreads itself on the greater wing coverts. In 
the third year, the back is light rufous brown; the tail pale 
grey, without any bars, and its under surface, as are the wings 
underneath the quill feathers, of a silvery white. 
Latham describes a specimen of this bird as of a uniform 
brown, with a tinge of rust-colour; Montagu one which had 
the head, some of the wing coverts, and the four first quill 
feathers, white; Selby one which had the four quill feathers, 
throat, part of the wing, and the outer tail feathers, white; 
and the Rev. Leonard Jenyns one of which the lower half of 
the breast was white, and others spotted with white in various 
parts. Some have the upper part of the breast, and others 
