45 



137. 



138. 



with coiispicious rufous margins and blackish 

 shafts ; tail more or less rufous, with sub- 

 terminal band and remains of other bars (in 

 younger birds ashj'-brown barred with dark 

 broAvn) ; head, neck and mider parts taAvny 

 rufous, breast varied with creamy buff and 

 throat streaked Avith brown ; belly not 

 barred in adult. 



Buteo rufiventer Jerd. Madr. Jnl. 1844, p. 

 165. [Nilghiri Hills, India.] [—B. deser- 

 torum, Daud. ex Levaill.] 

 Desert Buzzard. 



Much larger : Wing S 16.25-17.75, tail 10.5, 

 tarsus 3.75. $ wing 18-19 in. ; breast huffish 

 to pale rufous with dark shaft streaks ; ab- 

 domen, flanks and thighs rufous to chocolate 

 brown, unbarred ; tail pale rufous, whitisli 

 at base and shafts white, Avith 2 or 3 definite 

 bars towards tip and remains of others ; 

 uniform dark under parts of some birds 

 probably a dark phase or erA-thrism rather 

 than age ; also subject to melanism ; im- 

 mature huffish white below blotched and 

 streaked witli dark rufous brown ; tail ashj- 

 with darker bars. 

 Buteo ferox ferox 8. G. Gmel 

 Ac. Petrop. xv., p. 442, pi 

 [Astrakari.] 

 Long-legged Buzzard. 



W. Asia and 

 S.E. Europe" 

 (S. Russia to 

 Caucasus) ; 

 S. to India, 

 Arabia and 

 Africa below 

 the Sahara 

 in winter ; 

 cas.in Brit. 

 Islands . 



N. Connn. 

 X (1769). 



tS.E. Europe 

 (cas. 8. & W. 

 Europe), 



Egypt, 



Arabia, Asia 

 Minor; W. 



& C. Asia ; 

 N.W. India 

 and Africa 

 in winter. 



* The form B. menetriesi, Bogd., is not separable. It appears to rest 

 upon birds with a fidly rufous tail and the bands obsolete, except the sub- 

 terminal one, Ijut there is no doubt these are only very old birds and there is 

 no means of distmguishino European from Asiatic examples in the various 

 other stages of tail marking, while the red stage seems common to both. 

 Both forms migrate to Africa. 



