BUTEONIN.E. 



45 



GENUS, Circus, Lacepede. 



Bill short, weak, high at the base, compressed, sloping, mode- 

 rately hooked at tip, a slight festoon in the middle of the margin 

 of upper mandible ; cere large, covered with setaceous curved 

 plumes ; lores covered with small feathers and bristles ; ears large ; 

 the coverts and the lower parts of the face partly surrounded by a 

 *uff of small thick-set feathers forming an imperfect disc ; wings 

 long, third and fourth quills longest ; tail long, slightly rounded ; 

 tarsi long, slender, well plumed at the knee, smooth, with large 

 transverse scutse in front ; toes rather short, not very unequal ; 

 talons sharp, well curved ; hind -toe short. 



Circus macrurus, S. G. Gm. 



51. Circus swainsoni, A. Smith. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. 



I, p. 96 ; Butler, Deccan, &c. ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 374 ; 



Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 88 ; Swinhoe and 



Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 57 ; Butler, Guzerat ; Stray 



Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 447 ; Hume's Scrap Book, p. 298. 

 THE PALE HARRIER. 



<?. Length, 17'6 to 18'5 ; expanse, 41 to 42 25 ; wing, 13'5 to 

 14 " tail, 9 to 10 ; bill from gape, 1 to T2 ; tarsus, 2'6 to 2'8. 



?. Length, 18'65 to 20'65 ; expanse, 40 to 47*5; wing, 1375 

 to 15-1 5; tail, 9-5 to 11-25; bill from gape, 1'2 to 1-38; tarsus, 

 2-65 to 2-92. 



Male, above pale grey ; wings and back darker ; beneath greyish- 

 white ; rump white, banded with greyish ; tail-feathers, except the 

 two centre ones, banded grey and white ; 3rd, 4th and 5th quills 

 dusky. 



The female is brown above, the feathers of the head and neck 

 edged with rufous ; beneath dark ochraceous with brown streaks 

 continued on to the lower tail-coverts ; upper tail-coverts banded 

 whitish-brown ; tail with the centre feathers greyish, the outer 

 ones pale rufous, all with dark bands. 



The above is Dr. Jerdon's description which is very meagre. I 

 therefore add Mr. Hume's description, extracted from Rough 

 Notes which is more voluminous : 



Description. Legs and feet bright orange to lemon-yellow, 

 according to age ; claws black ; irides bright yellow in adults, 

 dark brown in the young ; orbits yellow, dingier in the young ; 

 bill, cere greenish or dusky-greenish in the adult, somewhat yel- 

 lower in the young, specially on the culmen, and hidden at sides 

 by the bristles of the lore ; gape and base of lower mandible 

 blue, or sometimes greenish-blue ; upper mandible and tip of 

 lower mandible bluish or horn-black. 



Plumage, male. Lores closely clothed with tiny white 

 feathers, with elongated, naked, black-brown, hair-like shafts ; 

 forehead, and streak above eyes, and feathers of orbits greyish- 

 white, slightly paler than surrounding parts ; the whole of the 



