58 MILVINJE. 



Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 375 ; Svvinhoe and Barnes, 



Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 58 ; Hume's Scrap Book, p. 330. 

 THE HONEY BUZZARD. 



3. Length, 24 to 25 - 5 ; expanse, 49 to 54 ; wing, 15 '5 to 16 ; 

 tail, 10'3 to 11 ; hill from gape, T4 to T45. 



9. Length, 26 to 28; expanse, 55 to 57; wing, 1575 to 

 17*25 ; tail, 11'5 to 1275 ; bill from gape, 1'63 to 176. 



Young bird : brown above, the feathers more or less edged 

 lighter ; head and neck usually paler, sometimes rufous-brown, 

 at other times whitish, with central dark streaks, more or less 

 developed ; beneath white, sometimes only faintly streaked, at 

 times with large streaks, more rarely with large oval brown 

 drops, and with or without a dark central chin-stripe, and two 

 lateral ones. 



In some birds, especially those from Southern India, there is a 

 .well marked occipital cresf; "of several graduated feathers, general- 

 ly deep brown or almost black. 



In a further stage the brown above becomes darker and more 

 uniform ; and the lower parts assume a pale rufous brown tinge, 

 with the central streak more or less developed, according as it 

 was in the young bird, and the incomplete tail bands are more 

 clouded. 



The adult has the plumage above rich brown ; the head and 

 lores generally, but not always, suffused with ashy-grey, arid the 

 lower parts uniform darkish-brown, with the dark streak almost 

 obliterated ; the tail is brownish-ashy, faintly clouded with 

 dusky, and with two wide dark black bars, and a third, almost 

 concealed by the upper tail-coverts ; the terminal bar is tipped 

 white or greyish. 



The wings reach to about three inches from the end of the 

 tail ; the gape is short, only reaching to the anterior part 

 of the eye. 



In most birds in a transition state the feathers of the lower 

 parts are banded brown and white, especially on the lower 

 abdomen, thigh-coverts, &c., and some of these feathers are 

 generally to be found at all ages. 



Mr. Hume, after giving very detailed descriptions in his 

 " Scrap Book," adds : " Almost every possible combination of the 

 varying plumage, and shades of color, of different parts, above 

 described, may be met with." 



Jerdon omits giving the colors of the soft parts ; the omission 

 has been well supplied by Mr. Hume, whom I now quote : 



" The legs and feet, which are very full and puffy, vary from 

 dingy yellowish-white in the young to bees wax-yellow in old 

 adults ; scutellation well marked and reticulate (the plates 

 somewhat concave, especially at back of tarsus), except about 

 three or four transverse scutae at the tip of all the toes ; a mere 

 trace of a connecting membrane between the central and out- 

 ward toes at the base ; claws black, and except the mid-toe claw, 



