1876.] on the Expedition into the Dafla Hills, Assam. 67 



53. Cibcus melajtolettcus, Gmelin. 



A male and a female were shot in March on the Bishnath plain, where 

 the species was pretty common. Mr. J. H. Grurney has (' Ibis,' January, 

 1876, p. 130) described the interesting phase of plumage presented by the 

 female bird as follows : — 



" Whilst on the subject of harriers I may remark that in ' The Ibis' 

 for 1875, pp. 226 — 228, I published some notes on the various plumages of 

 G. melanoleucus ; as an addition to these, I now give some particulars of a 

 harrier of that species, obtained in the month of March in the Darrany 

 (Darrang) district of Assam by Major H. H. Godwin- Austen, and ascer- 

 tained by that gentleman to be a female ; premising that an ordinary adult 

 male was obtained by the same ornithologist in the same month and in the 

 same locality, and that I have been indebted to the good offices of Lord 

 Walden for the opportunity of examining both these specimens. In this 

 female the feathers on the entire upper surface of the head are blackish 

 brown, with narrow rufous edgings ; those of the nape are still darker, and 

 without rufous edgings, the entire mantle is of a similar tint, increasing in 

 intensity as it approaches the tips of the lower scapulars, which are almost 

 black. The general hue of the mantle is apparently unbroken, except by 

 narrow buff edgings to the upper interscapulary feathers ; but on lifting up 

 the lower scapulars, the feathers which they conceal are found to be grey, 

 barred with blackish brown, which is darkest towards the tip, and in places 

 mottled with white on the inner web ; the feathers on the rump are blackish 

 brown, more or less tipped with white ; the upper tail-coverts white, with 

 one, or at most two, irregular brown spots in each feather ; the tail grey, 

 with six irregular transverse bars and a whitish tip, but no tinge of rufous. 

 The under surface is marked very much as is represented in ' The Ibis' for 

 1874, Plate X, but with considerably more white on the abdomen, owing to 

 the brown streaks being fewer and narrower; the thighs and under tail-coverts 

 are also white, with a few streaks of brown, varying in both length and 

 breadth. The wings in this specimen show a remarkable approach to the 

 plumage of the adult male ; the whole of the lesser wing-coverts are white, 

 but with a broad sagittate mark of dark brown in the centre of each feather, 

 the same coloration being extended over the bend of the carpal joint, and 

 along the anterior edge of the wing to the commencement of the greater 

 coverts ; the black band which in the adult male extends from the neigh- 

 bourhood of the carpal joint to the tips of the tertials, is in this specimen 

 represented by a corresponding band of dark chocolate brown, varied by 

 some of the brown feathers passing, in part, into a decided black, and by a 

 few white spots in that part of the band which is near to the carpal joint ; 

 that portion of the wing which is grey in the full-pluniaged male is also 

 grey in this female, but with transverse bars of dark brown as in the ordinary 

 plumage of male specimens of intermediate age." 



