16 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
with pale tips. ail deep-brown, with pale bands and tip. Ivis 
brown-yellow. 
Fig. Levaill, Ois. d@ Afr. i. pl. 23. 
13. Circus xRUGINOsUS. Marsh Harrier. 
The Marsh Harrier of Europe has only recently been identified as 
an inhabitant of South Africa, and is doubtless only an occasional 
visitant. A single specimen was procured by Mr. Ayres at Potchef- 
stroom in the Transvaal in December, 1869. On the western coast, 
however, it has twice been procured by Senor Anchieta, at Huilla 
and on the Rio Coroca in the Mossamedes district. I may add that 
the late M. Jules Verreaux told us that it had occurred to him at 
the Cape during his fifteen years sojourn there. 
Young.—Nearly uniform chocolate brown, the feathers of the 
upper surface washed with rufous on their margins ; the upper tail- 
coyerts and under surface more decidedly rufous-brown ; crown of 
head, throat, and cheeks more or less entirely creamy buff, the 
feathers of the hinder neck, wing-coverts, and centre of breast often 
showing margins of this colour, giving a streaked appearance and 
indicating approaching adolescence; wings brown, the primaries 
much darker ; tail uniform brown, very slightly mottled with rufous. 
Adult male.x—Aboye dark brown, with slight remains of rufous 
margins to the feathers of the upper surface, the least wing-coverts 
buffy white with dark brown centres ; outer greater coverts, primary 
coverts, and secondaries bluish-ashy, with very slight white tips; the 
innermost secondaries brown, more or less washed with ashy-grey ; 
primaries blackish-brown, much paler at the tips, creamy-white at 
base of inner web, increasing in extent towards the secondaries, 
which are entirely light-ashy below ; upper tail-coverts white, some- 
what washed with grey and tinged with rufous; tail uniform bluish 
ash-colour, paler and a little more fulvescent beneath ; entire head 
and neck creamy-buff, streaked with dark brown, the interscapulary 
region also slightly streaked; facial ruff indistinct, being coloured 
like the rest of the head and neck; sides of face and throat white 
with narrow streaks of dark brown, the hinder margin of ear- 
coverts nearly uniform brown; under surface of body creamy buff, 
the breast longitudinally streaked with brown; the abdomen and 
thighs more decidedly rufescent, but appearing partially streaked by 
reason of the fulyous margins to the feathers; under wing-coverts 
