2 BUTEO PLUMIPES. 



Adult female. Length to front of cere 18-5 to 19-0 inches ; culinen from cere 0-85 ; wing 15-0 to 16-5 ; tail 7-5 to 0-0 ; 

 tarsus 2-6 to 3-2, bare front of tarsus 0-9 to 1-35 ; mid toe 1-5, its claw (straight) 07 ; height of bill at cere 0- 1. 



Adult male. Length to front of cere 18-0 to 18-5 inches ; wing 13-5 to 15-G ; tarsus 2"7 to 2-9, bare front of tarsus 0-9 

 to 1-5. 



Obs. In the series from which the latter measurements are taken is included what appears to be an immature though 

 not a very young bird in my own collection, from the south of Ceylon. Its detailed dimensions are: — Length to 

 tip of bill 18 - 25 inches : wing 13-5 ; tail 7'25 ; tarsus 3-0, bare portion of front of tarsus 1-5 ; mid toe 1*5. 



Iris dull yellowish mingled with brown or light hazel ; cere varying from greenish yellow to yellow ; gape yellow ; 

 bill blackish ; legs and feet citron-yellow, claws black. 



Above sepia-brown, dark and uniform on the forehead and back, and pale on the hind neck and greater wing-coverts, 

 the feathers more or less margined with rufous mostly on the hind neck, scapulars, and wing-coverts, on the first 

 of which the white bases of the feathers show considerably, and there is a dark nuchal patch ; primaries and 

 their coverts dark brown, the outer webs of the longer quills washed with greyish, the inner webs white internally 

 and crossed with narrow bars of brown ; secondaries paler, dark near the tips and with both webs barred, the 

 white portions of the inner webs washed, in some, with rufous ; the lateral feathers of the upper tail-coverts 

 broadly margined with rufous and some barred with the same ; tail rufous or brownish rufous, more or less shaded 

 with, brown, and washed at the margins of the rectrices with greyish, tipped with dull buff, and with a softened 

 subterminal band and a number of narrow bars (incomplete in old birds towards the base) of brown ; lateral 

 feathers white internally. 



Lores and a superciliary line blackish, a postorbital and moustachial streak dark brown, the feathers, as on the ear- 

 coverts, pale-edged ; throat whitish striped with brown ; sides of the neck and chest rufous, in some brown, the 

 shafts dark, and the margins of the feathers indented with rufescent whitish, which in some examples is conspi- 

 cuous on the centre of the chest ; breast and belly whitish or rufescent white, the feathers dark-shafted and 

 barred with brown, in some on the lower breast, while other examples have the breast crossed with a waih of dark 

 brown ; lower flanks cinereous brown, greyish in old birds : thighs rufous, more or less cross-marked with brown ; 

 under tail-coverts fulvous, barred with rufous-brown ; under wing whitish, painted down the centre with rufous 

 and barred with brown. 



Obs. The above description is taken from a number of examples in the British Museum, and is intended to embody as 

 much as possible the characteristics of the very variable plumage in this species. Scarcely any two specimens are 

 alike on the under surface ; the older the bird the more covered with rufous-brown are the lower parts, and the 

 less conspicuously barred is the tail. Many individuals exhibit a fuliginous phase, which is thought to be the 

 result of old age, and which I will notice here as such, remarking, first of all, that such an example formed the 

 type of Hodgson's species, which has been figured in Mr. Sharpe's admirable catalogue of the Accipifiv^. 



Dark phase in old bird. In this the head, hind neck, and back, together with the wings, are uniform brown; tail dark 

 brown, with the bands crossing the feathers completely, the subterminal one much marked ; beneath, almost uniform 

 brown, the centre of the breast alone being crossed with paler bands. In an example from Etawah the under 

 surface is very dark, but the feathers have paler lateral margins, and the under tail-coverts are brownish buff, 

 banded like ordinary adult birds, showing thus a remnant of the usual mature plumage, and demonstrating the 

 fact that the fuliginous coloration has been a further advance beyond that stage and is the result of old age. 



Young. Similar to mature birds described above, although scarcely any two specimens are alike. The primaries are 

 paler brown, and have not the outer webs washed with ashy; the ground-colour of the upper tail-coverts not so 

 pervaded with ashy : tail very variable, sandy brown, brownish grey, or greyish rufous, plainly barred on the central 

 feathers with rather wavy bands of brown, uniting with the darker margins of the feathers, and the inner webs of 

 the lateral feathers not so white as in adults. 



Edge of forehead whitish ; cheeks whitish striped; with brown, the moustachial stripe streaked with white ; throat and 

 all beneath white or whitish buff : the chest and fore neck more or less broadly striped with brown, the markings 

 coalescing down the sides of the fore neck in some ; sides of the lower breast generally brown, unitin<» with the 

 dark flanks : thighs fulvous, with brownish-rufous markings, in some showing indications of bars ; abdomen and 

 under tail-coverts buff, spotted with rufous ; under wing whiter than in the adult, and the primary under-covert s 

 with less brown on the terminal portions ; basal half of primaries beneath pure white. 



