MTTEO. 25 



Hab. Winter visitant in Sind. Found throughout India. It is recorded 

 from Northern, Southern, and Central India, N.-W. Provinces, the Punjab, the 

 Gangetic Valley, N.-W. Himalayas, Kashmir, Nepal, Oudh, and Behar; also 

 from Beloochistan, Persia, Afghanistan, Eastern Turkestan, and Palestine. In 

 Palestine Mr. Tristram (Ibis, 1865) took its eggs from a rocky ledge on Mount 

 Carmcl. The plumage of his Palestine specimen, he says, is very rufous, 

 and he shot breeding birds with and without the bar on the tail 



22. Bllteo desertorum, Daud. Traite, ii. p. 164; Vieill. N. Die. d 

 Hist. Nat. iv. p. 478; Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 268; Jerd. Ibis, 1871, 

 p. 338. Buteo rufiventer, Jerd. III. Ind. Orn. pi. 27. Buteo vulgaris, Jerd. 

 B. Ind. i. p. 87. The AFRICAN BUZZARD. 



Adult.. Above brown, all the feathers except on the lower back and rump 

 margined with rufous. Head and neck tawny rufous, the feathers mesially 

 streaked with dark brown ; sides of face whitish, washed with rufous and 

 narrowly shafted with dark brown. Under surface of body tawny rufous, 

 some of the feathers of the lower breast tipped with creamy buff, the under 

 tail coverts inclining to this colour, as also the middle of the breast ; thighs and 

 flanks rufous, shaded with ashy brown ; under wing coverts creamy buff with 

 rufous central streaks, the outermost and greater series inclining to ashy 

 brown ; upper wing coverts dark brown, the feathers margined with rufous. 

 Primaries black, externally shaded with ashy grey, the secondaries lighter 

 brown, tipped with whitey brown. Under surface of quills white at base of 

 inner webs, shading into ashy white gradually towards the tips. 



Upper tail coverts rufous at tip and on outer web ; tail rufous, yellowish at 

 tip, with an indistinctly indicated subterminal bar of brown, the shafts white. 

 Cere lemon yellow. Bill dark plumbeous, lighter near the cere ; feet lemon 

 yellow; iris light hazel, or yellowish. Length 21 inches; culmen 1*55; 

 wing 13*4; tail 7-8; tarsus 3. (Sharpe.) 



Hab. The whole ofAfrica, S.-E. Europe, and the Indian Peninsula gene- 

 rally. Common in the Himalayas. Recorded from the Neilghcrries, and from 

 Murree to Darjeeling. Nothing is known of the nidification of this species, 

 except what Dr. Bree says, that, according to M. Fairer, it nests among the 

 rocks and the male takes its turn in sitting. 



23. Buteo pllimipeS, Hodgs. in Grafs Zool. Misc. p. 81 ; id. P. Z. 

 S. 1845, p. 37; Jerd. B. 1ml. p. 91 No. ; Hume, Rough Notes, p. 285; 

 Jerd. Ibis, 1871, p. 340; Str. F. iv. pp. 358-371 ; Sharpe, Cat. Ace. B. M. 

 p. 180. Buteo japonicus, Bp. Consp. i. p. 18 ; Jerd. Ibis, 1871, p. 337. Buteo 

 vulgaris, Blyth, Ibis, 1863, p. 20. The HARRIER BUZZARD. 



PLATE. 



Adult. Above dark purplish brown, the feathers rufescent on their mar- 

 gins ; sides of face and neck rufous, the feathers mesially streaked with brown ; 

 lores whitish. Upper margin of ear coverts dark brown ; cheeks blackish, 

 forming a strongly pronounced moustache. Under suffacc of body rufous, 

 4 



