46 BUTEONINA. 
rest of the top of the head and nape to where the ruff joins in, 
grey, tinged with brown, most strongly so on nape feathers and 
with dark shafts; cheeks and ear-coverts grey, the feathers 
broadly edged with greyish-white, so as to produce a striated 
appearance. Feathers of ruff, which, as regards color, is very 
conspicuous, greyish-white with narrow, central, grey streaks; 
back of the neck, below, brownish-grey ; patch of nape greyish- 
white, the feathers slightly darker shafted and some of them 
with the greyish traces of faint, brownish-grey, transverse, 
subterminal spots; the whole of the base of the neck behind, 
upper back and scapulars, a sort of ash-grey, more or less 
tinged towards the tips with brownish-grey, and the longer 
scapulars frosted with a purer grey; the middle and lower back — 
a shade lighter grey, the white bases of the feathers showing 
through, more or less; upper tail-coverts pure white, with re- 
gular, broad, transverse, grey or slightly brownish-grey bars ; 
the whole of the wing-coverts, winglet, tertials, and outer webs 
of secondaries and last four primaries grey, more silvery on quills, 
and browner on lesser-coverts ; the median-coverts narrowly pale 
margined, and most of the other feathers of the corners narrowly, 
paler tipped ; the second and last four primaries have the .cen- 
tral halves of the inner webs pure grey, and the marginal halves 
white ; the first primary is silver-grey on the outer web, dusky- 
grey on the inner, as far as the notch, and above this chiefly 
white ; the next four are nearly black, with a good deal of silver- 
grey, however, on the outer webs of the first two, and of white, 
more or less mottled with dusky, on the inner webs of all towards 
the base ; the sixth is dusky-grey on the outer web and tip, and 
paler and browner-grey on inner web, which has a broad marginal 
stripe, broadest towards base, where it occupies nearly the whole 
web of white irregularly mottled with grey; the central tail- 
feathers are a uniform silver-grey, slightly shaded with dusky on 
the terminal half; the next feather, on each side, is similar, but 
there are five or six white patches on the shafts, and traces of 
corresponding paler bars on the inner webs, which are very 
narrowly, paler margined; in each succeeding feather, the white 
patches on the shaft are better marked, and extend further and 
further across the outer webs, while the corresponding broad pale 
bars on the inner webs, at first only mottled with white, become 
pure white and larger, and at the same time the white margin 
of the inner webs spreads inwards, so that the two exterior 
feathers have the inner webs pure white, with only four or five, 
somewhat narrow bars of grey, or brownish-grey, (which do not 
extend to the margin), and here and there a little freckling, 
chiefly towards the base of the same color; chin, throat and 
front of the neck pearl-grey, whitish on chin; breast, abdomen, 
vent, sides, wing-lining and thigh-coverts pure white with just 
the faintest possible grey mottling or freckling in places on 
sides, and base of thighs ; lower tail-coverts white, with rather 
