CIRCUS CINEEACEUS. 



(MONTAGU'S HARRIER.) 



Falco cineraceus, Mont, Orn. Diet. vol. i. (1802) ; Temm. Man, i. p. 76 (1820). 



Circus cinerarius, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. &c. Brit. Mus. p. 9 (1816). 



Circus montagui, Vieill. N. Diet. xxxi. p. 411 (1819). 



Circus cinerascens, Steph. Gen. Zool. xiii. p. 41 (1825) ; Kelaart, Proclromus, Cat. p. 115 ; 

 Layard, Ann. & Mag-. N. H. 1853, xii. p. 105 ; Schlegel, Vog. Nederl. pis. 18, 19 (1854). 



Circus cineraceus, Cuv. Reg. An. i. p. 338 (1829); Gould, B. of Europe, i. pi. 35 (1837); 

 Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 97 ; Gould, B. of Gt. Britain, pt. xii. ; Hume, Eough Notes, ii. 

 p. 303 ; Newt. ed. Yarr. Brit, B. i. p. 138 ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 413 ; Shelley, 

 B. of Egypt, p. 184; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 278. 



Circus pygargus, Sharpe, Cat. Birds, i. p. 64 (1874). 



The Ash-coloured Harrier, Montagu ; The Ashy Falcon of Kelaart ; Swamp-Hawk, Sports- 

 men in Ceylon. 



Betu ulu, Transylvania. Cenizo, Spanish. 



FilU-gedda, Tel. ; Puna-Prdndu, Tam. 



Kurula-goya, Bajaliya, Sinhalese. 



Adult male (from European, Indian, and Ceylonese examples). Length to front of cere 16-5 to 17'5 inches ; eulmen 

 from cere 069 to 0-71 ; wing ]3-6 to 15 - 5 (sometimes reaching to the tip or even beyond the tip of tail) : tail 8 - 6 

 to 10 ; tarsus 2-2 to 2-3 ; mid toe 1-1, claw (straight) 0-45 ; height of bill at cere 032 to 0-34. 



The following are some measurements of old birds from examples in the British Museum exemplifying the above 



variation :■ — 



Wing. Tail. Tarsus. 



in. in. in. 



<J . Bengal 14-9 9-9 2-2 



d . N. Bengal 15-5 10-0 2-3 



6 . Seville 13-6 8-6 2-2 



6 ■ Seville 14-2 9-1 2-3 



N.B. In this species the second primary-covert does not reach within § inch of the notch in the second primary, falling 

 short of it, in females, by as much as 2j inches. 



Iris bright yellow ; cere, loreal skin, and base of lower mandible yellow, top of cere tinged with greenish ; bill blackish 

 at the tip, paling into bluish horn-colour at the base : legs and feet chrome-yellow, claws black. 



Head, upper surface, and wing-coverts dark bluish ashen, amalgamating with the paler bluish of the throat, fore neck, 

 and chest, a darkish tint usually prevailing across the back and scapulars ; 1st to the 5th primary blackish 

 slate-colour, .the rest, together with their coverts, silver greyish with black shafts ; secondaries duller silver-grey, 

 crossed by two dark brown bands ; upper tail-coverts white, banded broadly with slate-grey ; two central tail- 

 feathers slate-grey, the next two paler grey, barred with brown, the remainder with the ground-colour white, 

 more or less tinged with rufous towards the base and barred with dark-edged rufous bands. 



Beneath, from the chest, white, striped with narrow streaks of rufous down to the under tail-coverts ; axillary plume 

 and under wing-coverts barred with rufous, but not extending to the wing-lining beneath the ulna and carpus. 

 In some examples the ashen hue extends much further down the breast than in others. 



OJis. A very remarkable melanistic variety of the adult form exists, some fine examples of which, from Mr. Howard 

 Saunders's collection, are in the British Museum. The whole bird is dark soot} 7 brown, with the cheeks, back. 



