10 FALCONID^E. 



and face turmeric yellow ; bill pale horny brown ; feet and legs yellowish 

 white. 



Length. li to 22 inches; wing 15-5 (not reaching the tip of the tail) ; 

 tail 9-5 ; tarsus 3^4 ; culmen 2'g. 



Hab. Throughout India and a permanent resident. Breeds from February 

 to April on cliffs, old mosques, &c., seldom on trees, making a rude nest of 

 twigs, lined with rags, &c. Eggs variously coloured, the ground colour usually 

 a dirty white, blotched and smeared with reddish brown, or marked all over 

 with deep red, with blotches at the larger end. 



Family FALCONID^E, FALCONS. 



Bill usually short and compressed ; tip elongated, curved and ' sharp. 

 Commissure of upper mandible distinctly toothed or festooned. Head always 

 covered with true feathers. 



Sub-Family BUTEONIN.E. 



Bill small, moderate, tip hooked. Wings moderate ; tail generally short ; 

 tarsus with scutae in front and behind ; tibia longer than tarsus. Outer toe 

 connected to middle toe by interdigital membrane. 



Gen. CircUS. Lacep. 



Upper mandible slightly festooned ; lower emarginate. Nostrils round, 

 with no bony excrescence. Tarsi long and slender, naked ; wings long ; the 

 first quill not so long as the fifth, the third and fourth longest ; cere large, 

 surrounded with a ruff of setaceous curved plumes. 



9. CircUS CyaneUS, Linn. Sys- Naf.i.p. 126; Yarrell, Br. B. i. 

 p. 94 ; Sharpe, Cat. Ace. p. 52 ; Boie, Isi's, 1822 ; Gould. B. Eur. i. pi. 33 ; 

 Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 95 ; Gould. B. Gt. Bt. 1867; Hume, Rough Notes, ii. 

 p. 93, No. 50 ; Sir. F. i. p. 160, 418 ; Reid, Cat. B. Prov. Mus. N. W. P. and 

 Oudh.The HEN HARRIER. 



Adult Male. Upper parts, chin, throat, cheeks, ear-coverts, sides of the neck, 

 and breast bluish ashy, paler on the wing coverts and tail, the former also 

 slightly margined with whitish and the scapulars slightly tinged with fuscous. 

 Frontal plumes and lores whitish ; feathers of the nape pure white. Forehead 

 and supercilium whitish, ist 6 primaries blackish both above and below, the 

 outer webs, towards the tips, more or less suffused with silvery grey ; the inner 



