116 SPAKKOW-HAWK, 



brown. The wings expand to about the width of two feet 

 four, or two feet five inches; underneath they are pale grey, 

 more or less tinged with rusty red, and barred with dark 

 brown; under wing coverts, light red, barred with dusky brown, 

 primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, greyish black, obscurely 

 barred on the outer webs with dark brown, and spotted with 

 two or more large yellowish white spots on the inner webs 

 in the intervals, excepting towards the tips ; greater and lesser 

 under wing coverts, as the breast, but the bars are broader. 

 The tail, which is brown, has four darker bars of the same 

 on the middle feathers, and five on the side ones; their edge 

 is better defined on the lower than on the upper side; tip, 

 whitish; under tail coverts, w r hite, with a few dark markings 

 on the outer ones, as on the breast, but broader; legs and 

 toes, yellow; claws, black. 



The young are at first covered with white or greyish white 

 down even in the nest the females are distinguishable by their 

 superior size. When fledged, the bill is dusky brown at the 

 tip, and bluish at the base; cere, greenish yellow; iris, light 

 brown. Head and neck, reddish brown, with some partly white 

 feathers on the back of the latter; the middle of each feather 

 being dark greyish brown; breast, reddish white, with large 

 oblong spots of a dark brown colour; the middle of each 

 feather being of that colour, transversely barred with yellowish 

 red or light rust-colour the bars becoming by degrees narrower 

 and brighter. Back, reddish brown; legs and toes, greenish 

 yellow, tinged with blue. Wings and tail, dark reddish brown, 

 then bluish grey, which becomes more pure as the bird advances 

 in age; the tail has three dark brown bands. The female is 

 larger: she also has the partly white feathers on the back of 

 the head; the breast is whiter than in the male, and the 

 marking on it larger; the upper parts browner. I have recently 

 seen in the admirably well-preserved collection of Mr. Chaffey, 

 of Dodington, Kent, a most remarkable variety of this bird 

 a male, the whole plumage as white as snow. 



