364 



Length about 17 ; tail 7 ; wing 11 '5 ; tarsus 2-3 ; mid toe without 

 claw 1-3 ; bill from gape 1/3. 



Distribution. Common throughout the greater part of India, in 

 open plains and cultivated country, in low scrub and occasionally 

 in high jungle, but not in hill-forest ; rare in Malabar and Lower 

 Bengal and in Southern India generally, and wanting in Ceylon 

 and in the Himalayas ; not rare in the desert regions of Western 

 India and in Baluchistan ; to the eastward this species is found 

 throughout Pegu and probably Northern Burma generally, extend- 

 ing to Northern Tenasserim. 



Habits, $c. This is a bird with a quick flight, compared by 

 Jerdon to that of the Kestrel. It may generally be seen seated 

 on trees or bushes or the ground, and it feeds on small mammals 

 and reptiles, frogs, crabs, and insects. It has a peculiar plaintive 

 cry. The nest is of sticks, without lining, and placed in a thick 

 tree, very often a mango : 3 eggs, or sometimes 4, are laid about 

 April ; they are, as a rule, nearly white, but spotted eggs have 

 occasionally been found. The eggs measure about 1*83 by 1*53. 



1221. Butastur liventer. The Rufous-iuinged Buzzard-Eagle. 



Falco liventer, Temm. PL Col. pi. 438 (1827). 



Poliornis liventer, Walden, Tr. Z. S. viii, p. 37 ; Hume, N. fy K 



p. 50 ; id. S. F. i, p. 319 ; iii, p. 31 ; Blyth fy Wald. Birds Burm. 



p. 61 ; Armstrong S. F. iv, p. 299. 

 Butastur liventer, Sharps, Cat. B. M. i, p. 296 ; Oates, S. F. v, 



p. 142 ; vii, p. 40 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, p. 21 ; Hume, Cat. 



no. 48 ter ; Gates, B. B. ii, p. 196 ; id. in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd 



ed. iii, p. 161. 



Coloration. Adult. Head and neck all round ashy brown ; chin 

 and throat more or less white ; back and wing-coverts rufescent 

 brown ; a variable amount of white or pale rufous mottling and 

 barring on the wing-coverts ; rump and upper tail-coverts dull 

 rufous-brown ; all the feathers of the upper surface dark-shafted ; 

 quills bright rufous outside, the tips and the outer web towards 

 the end brown, white inside, whity brown near the end, with 

 narrow dark bars on the secondaries and the terminal portion of 

 the primaries ; tail bright rufous above, whitish below, crossed by 

 4 or 5 narrow dark bars, the last broader and subterminal ; these 

 bars disappear with age ; lower parts greyish brown, the breast 

 dark-shafted ; abdomen with spots and bars of white increasing 

 posteriorly ; vent, lower tail-coverts, and wing-lining pure white. 

 Axillaries light rufous-brown barred with white. 



Young birds are browner, without grey on the head, neck, or 

 breast ; there is a whitish supercilium, and the white bases of the 

 feathers show on the nape ; the crown is light brown or rufous 

 with dark shaft-stripes ; indeed the shaft-stripes are conspicuous 

 throughout the plumage ; the upper tail-coverts show sometimes 

 pale bands ; the chin and throat are white, with dark median and 

 lateral stripes ; and the brown of the breast is often barred with 

 white or buff. 



