COMMON BUZZARD. 509 
festoon, the tip trigonal, acute ; lower mandible with the angle short 
and rounded, the dorsal line convex and ascending, the edges sharp, 
arched, at the end deflected, the tip rounded. Nostrils irregularly obo- 
vate, in the fore part of the cere, nearer the ridge than the margin. 
Head large, roundish, flattened above ; neck rather short ; body full. 
Feet short, robust ; tarsi roundish, anteriorly feathered half-way down, 
anteriorly scutellate, laterally reticulate, posteriorly also scutellate ; 
the lower part all round covered with series of small scales, as are the 
toes for half their length, the terminal portion being scutellate ; they 
are strong, of moderate length, the hind toe stouter, with four large 
scutella, the inner with four, the middle with about eight, and con- 
nected at the base by a web with the outer, which has four large scu- 
tella. Claws long, arched, compressed, tapering to a point, flat be- 
neath. 
Plumage ordinary, full, rather blended beneath. Space between 
the bill and eye covered with bristly feathers ; eyelids with soft downy 
feathers, and ciliate ; the superciliary ridge prominent. Feathers of 
the head and neck ovato-oblong, of the back and breast ovate and 
rounded, of the sides and outer part of the leg elongated, of the rest 
of the leg short. Wings long, broad, the fourth quill longest, the third 
next, the fifth very little shorter, the second longer than fifth, the first 
and seventh about equal ; first four abruptly cut out on the inner web ; 
secondaries broad and rounded. Tail rather long, broad, slightly 
rounded. 
Bill light blue at the base, with the margins yellowish, the tip 
black ; the cere yellow. Iris hazel. Feet yellow; claws black, at the 
base bluish. The general colour of the upper parts is chocolate-brown. 
The quills are of the general colour externally, but the primaries are 
black toward the tip, a great part of the inner web, with the shaft, 
white, and barred with brownish-black, the bars more extended on the 
secondaries. The tail is marked with about ten dusky bars on a red- 
dish-brown ground, tinged with grey, the last dark bar broader, the tips 
paler. The eyelids are whitish, as is the throat, which is longitudi- 
nally streaked with dusky. ‘Che rest of the lower parts are yellowish 
or brownish white, barred with brown. The lower wing-coverts are 
white, barred or spotted with dusky ; the white of the inner webs of 
the primaries forms a conspicuous patch, contrasted with the greyish- 
black of their terminal portion. 
