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that I have yet seen, or can find described, does there appear 
that predominance of rufous, which characterizes the present 
species. Again, the adult of this species, (herein resembling 
Ferox) always has the outer webs of the second to the sixth or 
seventh primary, silvered above the emarginations, and this 
would not appear to be the case in B. Vulgaris. From B. 
Ferox, its smaller size distinguishes it; the wings in this latter 
Species varying from 16°25 and upwards in males, to fully 19 
inches in large females. The feet and claws too are smaller, 
and while in no instance have I found the tarsus of Ferar less 
than 3°2, (and it is no less than 3:7 in one large female now 
before me) in no instance have I found the tarsus of the present 
Species to exceed 2°9, and in the males it often barely exceeds 
27. Lam aware that Bree gives the tarsus 3; but in no one, out 
of 21 Indian killed specimens, has it exceeded 2°9 scant. 
Mr. Gurney, quoted by Dr. Bree says: “The appearance of 
this bird when alive, is less heavy and more elegant than that 
of B. Vulgaris. My living specimen, which was dull brown 
when I bought it a year ago, has moulted into a rich rufous 
plumage, and one that was alive in the Zoological Gardens, a 
few years ago, underwent a similar change.”’ 
This bird of Mr. Gurney’s, is described as having “ the crown 
of the head, back, and scapulars a dark ashy brown, each feather 
haying a narrow streak of brown down the centre, shadowed 
with arusty red.” he tail, tibial and tarsal plumes are fi- 
gured an uniform dark cinnamon red. “ The cere, feet and tarsi,” 
Mr. Gurney tells us, ‘are lemon yellow, and the iris is some- 
times alight hazel, and sometimes yellow, probably assuming 
the latter colour as the bird advances in age : a similar variation, 
which exists in the iris of the common Buzzard, is, however, not 
always referable to age, as I have ascertained by experience. 
The billis dark lead colour, but somewhat lighter adjoining the 
throat and cere 
The plumage of our Himalayan. birds, varies most remark- 
ably, but no single specimen that I have yet seen, agrees very 
closely with either Dr. Bree’s figure, or any description of B. 
Desertorum or B. Cirtensis to which I have access. 
One common type of plumage is as follows. The whole of the 
top of the head, occiput, nape and back of the neck dark brown, 
(the shafts almost black) each feather more or less narrowly mar- 
gined at the sides, (not at the extreme tips) with bright rufous 
fawn. The interscapular region similar, but a still darker 
brown, often glossed with purple and but little of the rufous 
showing, owing to the close overlapping of the feathers, leaving 
little but their tips visible. The middle of the back deep hair 
