214 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



174. CIRCUS MELANOLEUCOS (Pennant). 

 PIED MARSH HAWK. 



Falco melanoleucos PENNANT, Ind. Zool. (1769), 2, pi. 2. 



Circus melanoleucus SHARPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874), 1, 61; Hand- 

 List (1899), 1, 245; BLANFOBD, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. ( 1895), 3, 385; 

 GATES, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 237; MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, 

 Hand-List (1906), 41; MCGREGOR, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 

 322, pi. 1. 



Bantayan (McGregor); Basilan (M earns)-, Bohol (McGregor) ; Calayan (Mc- 

 Gregor); Guimaras (Steere Exp.) ; Luzon (Steere Exp., Whitehead) ; Mindanao 

 (Steere Exp., Celestino) ; Negros (Bourns & Worcester, Keay) ; Sibay (McGregor 

 d Worcester) ; Sulu (Guillemard) ; Ticao (McGregor). Eastern Siberia and Mon- 

 golia; in winter to China, northeastern Indian Peninsula, and Indo-Chinese 

 countries. 



"Adult male. Upper parts glossy black; rump and upper tail-coverts 

 white, the latter with two or three broad cross-bars of black or ashy 

 gray, the former also shaded with gray; wing-coverts silvery gray, mar- 

 gined with white, with a broad band of black feathers extending from 

 the bend of wing parallel with its margin and joining the median coverts, 

 which are also black; primaries black; primary-coverts and secondaries 

 silvery gray, except the innermost, which are black; tail entirely silvery 

 gray, tipped with white, below and on the inner webs white; sides of 

 face and neck, throat, and chest glossy black; rest of under surface, in- 

 cluding under wing- and tail-coverts, pure white. Bill and cere black; 

 feet yellow; iris yellow. Length, 457 ; culmen, 25 ; wing, 356 ; tail, 216 ; 

 tarsus, 76." (Sharpe.) 



"Adult female. Above dark brown, the feathers of the crown and neck 

 with rufous edges, those of the nape broadly bordered with white; a 

 well-marked ruff of small white or buffy white feathers with brown 

 shaft-stripes; around eyes whitish; cheeks and ear-coverts dirty white 

 or pale rufous with brown streaks; smaller coverts along forearm white 

 (in younger birds rufous) with blackish brown shaft-stripes, median 

 coverts brown with gray or white spots and bars, larger coverts dusky 

 gray with a broad subterminal blackish band and another near the base ; 

 primaries outside blackish brown; secondaries gray, with blackish cross- 

 bands, beneath all are grayish or whitish with dark bands; upper tail- 

 coverts white, sometimes with rufous-brown drops or bands; tail gray 

 with dark brown cross-bands; lower parts white, with dark brown shaft- 

 stripes, broad on the throat and breast, narrower and sometimes disap- 

 pearing on the abdomen. 



"Young birds are more uniform brown above than the adult female, 

 and have no gray on the wings or tail, which are brown with darker 

 bands ; the ruff is ill-marked at the sides, but there is a large white brown- 

 streaked nuchal patch and another patch of buff-edged brown feathers 



