CIRCUS. 15 



Adult Male. Above pale bluish grey, scapulars slightly darker ; eyebrow 

 and sides of face white ; under surface of body greyish white. Quills blackish 

 brown ; the secondaries ashy grey, tipped with white, and the primaries washed 

 with ashy grey, white at base of inner web ; other quills white underneath. 

 Upper tail coverts white, banded with ashy grey. Tail feathers except the 

 two middle ones, which are uniform ashy grey banded grey and white ; the 

 tips and under surface of all the feathers white. Bill black ; feet and irides 

 yellow. 



Length. 17-5 to 18*5 inches; oilmen 1-15 ; wing 13*5 to 14; tail 8-8 to 

 9-5 ; tarsus 275. 



Adult Female. Above brown, the feathers of the head and hind neck 

 streaked, and of the upper surface and lesser wing coverts margined and tipped 

 with rufous. Forehead, supercilium, and a spot below the eye white. Cheeks 

 and ear coverts dark brown, slightly streaked with tawny. Quills dusky brown, 

 the primaries externally shaded with ashy grey, and like the secondaries 

 obsoletely barred darker and tipped with buffy white. Outer margin of ^th 

 primary entire ; notch in second primary nearly or quite hidden by coverts ; upper 

 tail coverts white, banded or spotted with dark brown. Tail with the two 

 centre feathers ashy brown and with six blackish brown bands, the rest with 

 four bands, those on the outer feathers being pale rufous. Under tail coverts 

 rufescent. Under wing coverts buffy white, spotted and streaked with brown. 

 Cere greenish yellow ; feet yellow ; irides brownish. 



The young, in the livery of which Mr. Hume says he has numerous speci- 

 mens, is shortly described by Mr. Sharpe as being brown, like the old female, 

 but not so much variegated above, with tawny margins to the feathers ; under 

 surface entirely pale fawn colour (rufous buff Hume}, the facial ruff of this same 

 colour, and therefore contrasting in marked prominence with the dark brown 

 cheeks and ear coverts, the flank feathers and axillaries with indistinct brown 

 central streaks ; frontal feathers, superciliary streak and spot under the eye 

 whitish ; upper tail coverts white, spotted with pale rufous ; tail much as in the 

 female, but the dark bars only five in number. 



Length. 20*5 to 21 inches; wing 14 to 14*5; tail lo to 10*5; tarsus 

 2-8 to 3. 



Hab. Europe, Africa, and throughout India, Ceylon, China, and Burmah. 

 Has been noted from the N.-W. and Central Provinces, Punjab, Sind, 

 Beloochistan, Afghanistan, Persia, Mesopotamia, S. India, Kutch, the 

 Concans and Deccan, Kattiawar, Behar, Nepaul. In India it is a winter 

 visitant, arriving about the middle of September and leaving again in 

 March. 



Nothing is known of its nidification anywhere in India, no birds having ever 

 been seen in India after March or the middle of April. 



