14 FALCONID^F. 



Adult Male. Above blue grey j throat, breast, and wing coverts darker, the 

 latter slightly mottled, and with a terminal spot of a dark ash colour. Primary 

 coverts and secondaries silvery grey, tipped with white, and with two bands of 

 black, one of which is hidden by the greater wing coverts. Primaries black, 

 the inner ones greyish at the tips and on the inner web. Secondaries grey 

 with a black band. Tail grey or greyish white, the two outer feathers banded 

 on their inner webs with rufous, the others dusky, with fine ashy black bands. 

 Upper tail coverts white, shading into ashy grey. Lores whitish. Abdomen, 

 flanks, thighs^ and under wing coverts white, streaked with fawn ; the axillaries 

 with spots of the same colour. Cere greenish yellow. Feet and irides 

 yellow. 



Length. 18 inches ; wing 14 to 15 ; tail 9-5 ; tarsus 2*3. 



The adult female differs from the male in being nearly uniform brown with 

 scarcely any fulvous margins to the feathers. The hind head and neck are 

 streaked with fulvous, as also the sides of the neck and facial ruff. Feathers 

 under the eye whitish. Outer margin of ' $th primary entire ; notch in second 

 primary, an inch or more distant from tip of coverts. Upper tail coverts white ; 

 tail brown, tipped with paler brown and banded with five bars of darker brown. 

 Under surface of body buffy white, the feathers with rufous centres ; legs 

 yellow ; irides hazel 



Length. 19 to 19*5 inches; wing 15-3; tail 87; tarsus 1*4 ; culmen ri to 



1*2. 



Hab. In India it has been found in Sind, Punjab, N. W. Provinces, Oudh, 

 Bengal, Rajpootana, Central India, the Central Provinces, Kutch, Behar, 

 Guzerat, the Concans, Deccan, South India, and British Burmaru Occurs also 

 in Ceylon, Beloochistan, Afghanistan, and Nepaul. Sharpe gives its distribu- 

 tion as Europe generally, ranging in winter through Palestine and along the 

 Nile to Abyssinia and South Africa, India, and Ceylon. 



It is, like the last, a winter visitant to India generally. Like the last, it flies 

 low, skimming along the surface of the ground in search of prey. It frequents 

 open jungle and cultivated fields, preying on birds, reptiles, insects, &c. It 

 has not been known to breed in India. In England it is said to make its nest 

 on the ground, generally among furze. The eggs are white, sometimes faintly 

 spotted 1*58 x 1-33 inches, and seldom above four in number. 



12. CircilS macrurus, S. G. Gmel N. Comm. Petrop* xv. p. 439 5 

 Sharpe, Cat. Ace. B. M. p. 67 ; Murray, Hdbk. Zool. 8fc. Sind, p. 1 15. Circus 

 swainsonii, Smith, S. Afr. Q. Journ. i. p. 384 ; Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 32 ; Jerd- 

 Birds of Ind. p. 96, No. 5 1 ; Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 298. Circus pallidus, 

 fykes,P.Z. S. 1832, p. 80; Shelley. B. Egypt, p. 183; Hume, S. F. 

 i. p. 160 ; Murray, Vert. Zoo]. Sind. p. 88 ; Reid, Cat. B. Mus. N. W. P. and 

 Oudh. The PALE HARRIER. 



