CIRCUS CINERACEUS. 13 



belly, and lower flanks blackish brown ; tail brownish grey ; quills and secondaries blackish brown, and the under 

 surface of the tail pale greyish. 



Young. The chick is first clothed with white down, which changes in about ten days to fawn-colour on the upper 

 surface ; in a fortnight more, according to Mr. H. Saunders's observations, the breast and flanks become clothed 

 with chestnut feathers, and the quills come out blackish brown with a rich rufous border. 



Male bird of the year. "Wing from 13 to 14 inches; females not exceeding the males at that age. 



Iris brownish yellow ; cere, bill, and legs much as in the adult. 



Above sepia-brown ; nape and upper tail-coverts white, the former with the centres of the feathers brown, and the 

 latter with terminal spots and occasionally bars of the same ; occiput and hind neck edged with rufous : wing- 

 coverts margined with fulvous ; primaries blackish brown, the longer feathers washed on the outer webs with 

 greyish, and the inner webs white towards the base and mottled with brown ; tail with the six central feathers 

 brownish grey, barred with brown, the latter becoming broader than the grey ground on the outer of these 

 feathers ; the remainder brown, barred with rufescent white. 



Cheeks and a broad eye-streak whitish ; a gular band of dark rufous-brown, and below it a ruff of paler, dark-centred 

 feathers, not contrasting, however, with the band, or setting it off, as in C. macrurus ; chin and gorge rufescent whitish : 

 throat and chest dull brownish rufous, with distinct dark shafts to the feathers, and gradually melting into the 

 yellowish rufous of the breast and lower parts, which are striated with broad stripes of rufous ; axillary plume 

 dark rufous, with light marginal spots ; median under wing-coverts rufous, with pale margins, the major series 

 brownish. 



Obs. The above is a description of one example, as presenting a fair type of the young male. The under surface, 

 however, varies much, though it is always darker than that of 0. macrurus, and differs from that species in the 

 more conspicuously streaked lower parts, as well as in the duller gular band and less conspicuous ruff below it. 



Progress towards maturity. The change from this to the adult phase is gradual but systematic. The upper surface 

 becomes cinereous brown, the upper tail-coverts sometimes coming out in the adult form (white, with blue-grey 

 bands) ; the tail becomes grey, the bars vanishing on the central tail-feathers, and the interspaces on the laterals 

 are white in some and rufous-white in others ; the chest and fore neck are rufescent, mingled frequently with 

 ashen feathers, and the breast and lower parts pale fulvescent, streaked with rufous stripes ; the lower surface of 

 the primaries and the bases of the inner webs are white ; under wing-coverts with more white than in the first 

 stage. 



After the next moult the lower parts become white with tawny streaks, as in the adult, and the chest is often ashy with 

 cinereous-brown strife ; at the same time the head usually retains its brown dress, and the tail has the lateral 

 feathers as darkly barred and as much tinged with rufous as in the younger stage. The gular band is usually dark 

 brownish, contrasting with the pale whitish ruff assumed at this age. 



Young female* . In the first year, females do not exceed males in size, measuring sometimes quite as low in the wing 

 as the smallest of the latter. 



Iris, in some brown, in others yellow, mottled with brown ; bill, legs, and feet as in male. 



Much resembles the male in plumage, but usually not so dark a rufous beneath, and with the stria? not so strongly 

 pronounced ; these are, however, variable in extent, being mostly confined to the chest in some, and extending in 

 others to the lower parts ; the primaries are barred on both webs with narrow bands of brown, and the secondaries 

 are crossed on their inner webs with broader bars of the same ; the wing-coverts vary, being sometimes almost 

 uniform, and occasionally very deeply edged with rufous, the brown hue being confined to the centre of the feather. 



In the next stage the rufous ground-colour of the under surface disappears from the edges of the feathers, and the 

 mesial stripes contrast markedly with the lighter hue of the rest of the web ; the head continues to be edged with - 

 rufous as before, and the margins of the hind-neck feathers are the same as in the yearling plumage ; the upper 

 tail-coverts are scantily barred or pointed with rufous, and the quills more pervaded with ashy than in the first 

 plumage. 



* The adult plumage in this sex varying so much, I have considered it advisable to commence with the young, and 

 follow the changes to the old bird. 



