232 COMMON HARRIER. 



grey, the inner webs of all the feathers except 

 three in the middle, paler, changing to white on 

 the outermost pair, and clouded with obscure bands 

 of blackish grey, but with no trace of brown or 

 reddish. The upper tail coverts, belly, vent, 

 thighs, inner wing coverts, and axillaries, pure and 

 unspotted white ; the shafts of the feathers on the 

 flanks sometimes black, but no spotting or reddish 

 marking as exhibited in the C. Americanus of the 

 Northern Zoology ; legs and irides gamboge 

 yellow ; length of a specimen before us in full 

 plumage, scarcely exceeds sixteen inches ; length 

 of the wing from shoulder to extremity of third 

 quill, about twelve and a half inches. 



The female varies more than the male in 

 the tints and markings of her plumage ; the 

 ruff is more conspicuously marked ; more so, 

 indeed, than in any other of our British Harriers. 

 The auricular feathers are long, of the loose and 

 hairy texture of these forming the disk of the face 

 of the owls. The general tint of the upper parts 

 is umber brown, of a paler or darker shade, 

 glossed with purple, and having the edges of the 

 feathers marked more or less . with reddish or 

 ochraceous. The feathers of the ruff are yellowish 

 or reddish white, bending inwards, not so compact 

 in texture as those of the owls, and marked along 

 the shaft with a streak of deep umber brown, 

 varying in breadth. The quills are umber brown, 



