58 MILVINZ. 
Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 875; Swinhoe and Barnes, 
Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 58; Hume’s Scrap Book, p. 330. 
THE HONEY BuzzARD. 
$. Length, 24 to 25°5; expanse, 49 to 54; wing, 15°5 to 16; 
tail, 10°3 to 11; bill from gape, 1°4 to 1°45. 
g. Length, "26 to 28; expanse, 55 to 57; wing, 15°75 to 
17°25; tail, 11°5 to 12°75 ; ‘pill from gape, 1:63 to 1°76. 
Young bird: brown above, the feathers more or less edged 
lighter ; head and neck usually paler, sometimes rufous-brown, 
at other times whitish, with central dark streaks, more or less 
developed ; beneath white, sometimes only faintly streaked, at 
times with large streaks, more rarely with large oval brown 
drops, and with or without a dark central chin-stripe, and two 
lateral ones. 
In some birds, especially those from Southern India, there is a 
well marked occipital crest of several graduated feathers, general- 
ly deep brown or almost black. 
In a further stage the brown above becomes darker and more 
uniform ; and the lower parts assume a pale rufous brown tinge, 
with the central streak more or less developed, according as it 
was in the young bird, and the incomplete tail bands are more 
clouded. 
The adult has the plumage above rich brown; the head and 
lores generally, but not always, suffused with ashy-grey, and the 
lower parts uniform darkish-brown, with the dark streak almost 
obliterated ; the tail is brownish-ashy, faintly clouded with 
dusky, and with two wide dark black bars, and a third, almost 
concealed by the upper tail-coverts ; the terminal bar is tipped 
white or greyish. 
The wings reach to about three inches from the end of the 
tail; the gape is short, only reaching to the anterior part 
of the eye. 
In most birds in a transition state the feathers of the lower 
parts are banded brown and white, especially on the lower 
abdomen, thigh-coverts, &c., and some of these feathers are 
generally to be found at all ages. 
Mr. Hume, after giving very detailed descriptions in his 
“ Scrap Book,” adds: “ Almost every possible combination of the 
varying plumage, and shades of color, of different parts, above 
described, may be met with.” 
Jerdon omits giving the colors of the soft parts; the omission 
has been well supplied by Mr. Hume, whom I now quote :— 
“The legs and feet, which are very full anl puffy, vary from 
dingy yellowish-white in the young to bees wax-yellow in old 
adults; scutellation well marked and reticulate (the plates 
somewhat concave, especially at back of tarsus), except about 
three or four transverse scute at the tip ofall the toes; a mere 
trace of a connecting membrane between the central and out- 
ward toes at the base ; claws black, and except the mid-toe claw, 
