50 BUTEONINJ2. 



?. Length, 18-6 to 19'5 ; expanse, 41'8 to 439; wing, 15 to 

 16 ; tail, 9'87 to 10'5 ; tarsus, 2'28 to 2'46 ; bill from gape, 1 07 

 to 1-2. 



Male : above throat and breast darkish blue-grey, darkest on 

 the back ; the first six quills black, the next one lighter, changing 

 to grey ; secondaries grey, with a black bar ; tail grey, the outer 

 two feathers barred on their inner webs with bright rufous, the 

 other three with dusky ; belly, vent, under tail-coverts, and under 

 wing-coverts white, with bold dashes of rich chestnut or reddish- 

 brown. 



The female chiefly differs from the female of the last in color, by 

 the lower parts being whiter, and the streaks much larger, and 

 more rufous-brown. 



Such is Jerdon's description. To this I add Mr. Hume's 

 description, which is much more detailed and is taken from his 

 " Scrap Book" 



Description. Legs and feet yellow ; claws black ; irides bright 

 yellow in the adult, sometimes brownish-yellow in the female, 

 almost white in one young one examined ; bill black, dusky 

 in the young ; cere greenish-yellow, yellower in the young. 



Plumage, Adult Male. The whole head, chin, threat, neck all 

 round, breast, back, scapulars, wings, (except the first seven 

 primaries which are blackish) , and central tail-feathers grey, of 

 different shades ; the neck, cheeks, and ear-coverts bluish ; 

 crown of the head and occiput (below which there is a white 

 mottled nape-patch, owing to the white bases of the feathers 

 showing through), here and there tinged with rufous brown ; the 

 scapulars infuscated and brownish; the back darker and more 

 ashy, and the wings and centre tail-feathers more silvery ; the 

 secondaries have a broad, blackish, transverse band across both 

 webs, forming a conspicuous wing-band (not unlike that of the 

 common pigeon 0. intermedia), and with traces of another, or 

 in some specimens, two other bands on the inner webs ; the 

 central tail-feathers unbarred, the laterals with four very broad, 

 transverse, dark bars on the inner webs, and traces of the same 

 on the outer webs of some of the feathers, the grey fading as 

 the feathers recede from the central ones, and to pure white on 

 the exterior ones, and the dark brown bands changing gradually 

 to dull chesnut on the latter ; a broad circle round the eye 

 whitish ; the lower parts from the breast downwards, and the 

 whole wing-lining (except a few of the longer lower-coverts, which 

 are ashy-grey with large white spots), pure white ; the feathers 

 of the abdomen with narrow, rather pale chesnut central streaks ; 

 there are lanceolate chesnut dashes in the wing-lining ; the axil- 

 laries are broadly and irregularly barred with blotches, and lower 

 tail and thigh-coverts have the shafts of the same color, a few 

 faint streaks of which are also generally to be seen mingling 

 with the blue-grey of the breast. 



Adult Female. Forehead, and a band round the eye, slightly 



