CIRCUS. ake 
streaks of reddish brown which are also present on flanks and abdomen ; 
primaries black, some of them barred with ashy white; wing-coverts 
brown with less white than the adult; primary-coverts and alula ashy 
white but with blackish brown bars; under wing-coverts white, streaked 
with blackish brown; axillars white, streaked and barred with reddish 
brown. Length, 533; wing, 400; tail, 235; culmen from base, 32; 
tarsus, 80; middle toe with claw, 61. 
“Adult female-—Above brown slightly shaded with ashy, the dorsal 
feathers obsoletely margined with’ dull rufous; crown and hind neck 
tawny-buff, paler on the neck, all the feathers mesially streaked with 
brown; scapulars and wing-coverts margined and barred with tawny or 
fulvous, the least wing-coverts more conspicuously margined with rufous ; 
quills brown, narrowly tipped with whitish, externally shaded with ashy 
gray, the secondaries less distinctly, and all barred across with darker 
brown; under surface of wing white, the dark bars showing very dis- 
tinctly ; lower back and rump brown, the feathers distinctly tipped with 
pale rufous; upper tail-coverts pure white; tail ashy gray, tipped with 
fulvous and crossed with five blackish bands, the subterminal one much 
the broadest, the ashy gray interspaces inclining to or replaced by pale 
tawny on the outer feathers; lores as well as a distinct eyebrow and ear- 
coverts buffy white; sides of face and of neck, as well as the facial ruff, 
rufous-buff streaked with dark brown; under surface of body creamy buff, 
with central pointed marks of rufous-brown to the feathers, more distinct 
on the fore neck and under wing- and tail-coverts; flank-feathers and 
axillars rufous-brown, with large rounded spots of creamy buff on both 
webs; under wing-coverts and thighs creamy buff, with irregular central 
streaks of rufous-brown occupying the major part of the greater under 
wing-coverts. Length, 584; wing, 394; tail, 279; tarsus, 7 9.” (Sharpe.) 
“Adult female—Brown above, the feathers throughout with pale 
rufous edges; tail-coverts white and rufous; tail with about six dark 
cross-bands, which disappear in old individuals; lower parts buff, with 
broad rufous-brown shaft-stripes. The quills are dark brown but become 
grayish in old birds. 
“Young birds so closely resemble those of C. @ruginosus as to be 
indistinguishable at times. The pale head and neck-feathers are always 
striated in C. spilonotus, but the body, wings, and tail are uniform brown 
or variegated with buff on the wing-coverts, back, and breast. Generally, 
though not invariably, traces of bars will be found on some of the tail- 
feathers of C. spilonotus, but this occasionally happens in C. wruginosus 
also. 
“Length, of male, 508; tail, 235; wing, 394; tarsus, 89; tail of female, 
254; wing, 419; tarsus, 94.” (Blanford.) 
