263 
14:37, and those of two specimens in my collection, from Europe, 
marked females, measure,* 15:1, and 15 inches respectively. 
I find the following description in the Naturalist’s Library, 
which may be useful to observers in India. ‘ The common 
Buzzard varies considerably in the colouring of the plumage, 
scarcely two specimens being similar. The difference consists 
chiefly, in the intensity of the tint of the upper parts, and in the 
presence of a greater or lesser degree of marking below. The 
general colour above, is some shade of umber brown, varying to 
hair brown, and brocoli brown; the feathers darker in the 
centre, often edged with a paler tint, or with reddish yellow, 
and generally glossed with a rich shining purple, which is most 
prevalent in dark coloured specimens. Wings at the tips are 
deep umber brown, shading into pure white at the base, where 
the feather becomes soft and downy; they are crossed with 
iregular, clouded, dark bars, which decrease in breadth and 
intensity, towards the roots. The under parts are sometimes 
pale yellowish white, streaked on the throat and breast, with 
shades of brown, of different intensity, and on the belly and 
vent crossed by broad irregular bars: sometimes they are of a 
uniform tint, nearly as dark as the upper surface of the body, 
and very little interrupted, and sometimes a very dark and deep 
band, tinted with purple, occupies the whole belly, while the 
other parts are streaked and marked with a moderate propor- 
tion of brown; the plumes of the thighs are generally dark, 
crossed with reddish ; the tail is slightly rounded, the ground 
colour whitish, of a chaste grey tinted with ochraceous, or of a 
reddish yellow; it is crossed by a broad bar of umber brown, 
near the tip, and by seven or eight narrow ones, of the same 
colour. In many of its variations it is extremely beautiful. 
The length of a male specimen before us is twenty inches, that 
of a female, nearly twenty-three.” 
Mr. Yarrell’s description is as follows : 
“ The beak is bluish black, darkest in colour towards the point, 
the cere yellow, the irides generally yellow ; but as the common 
Buzzard, and indeed all the Buzzards, are subject to consider- 
able variation in the colour of their plumage, the irides are 
observed to vary also, presenting some reference to the prevail- 
ing tone of the colour of the feathers. ‘The upper part of the 
head, occiput, and cheeks, pale brown, streaked longitudinally 
with darker brown; the whole of tue back, wing coverts, upper 
tail coverts, and upper suriace of the tail feathers, dark clove 
* The wings of two specimens in Colonel Tytler’s collection, measure 
16°25, and 15 inches respectively. 
