PALCONID^ CIRCUS 371 



Iris pale yellow ; bill black ; cere greenish ; legs yellow. 



Length 17-5 ; wing 13-75 ; tail 8-5 ; culmen 1-15 ; tarsus 2-60. 



Adult female. — Above, brown, the feathers of the head, hind neck, 

 and lesser wing-coverts edged with pale rufous ; frontal- feathers, 

 eyebrow, and spot below the eye white, moustachial streaks and 

 ear-coverts dark brown ; quills brown, externally edged with ashy, 

 and barred with white on the inner web, especially below ; upper 

 tail-coverts white vnth a few brown spots, middle tail feathers ashy- 

 brown, outer one pale rufous to white, all barred across with three 

 to five dark brown cross bands ; lower surface creamy white with 

 broad longitudinal streaks of brown which become narrower and 

 more rufescent on the abdomen and thighs. 



Iris dusky hazel ; bill bluish black ; cere and legs yellow ; 

 claws black. 



Length (in flesh) 19-0 ; wing 14-25 ; tarsus 2-70. 



The young bird resembles the female but is not so variegated, 

 but there is a white nuchal patch and the ruff is unstreaked buff 

 and strongly marked ; the under surface is entirely pale fawn 

 colour. In all stages of plumage the fifth primary is not 

 emarginated and the notch on the second is on a level with the tips 

 of the coverts. 



Distribution. — This Harrier, like Montagu's, is only a seasonal 

 visitor to South Africa ; its breeding range extends over southern 

 and eastern Europe and Central Asia, while from September to 

 April it is found throughout the greater part of Africa and India, 

 including Ceylon and Burma. 



Within our limits it seems to be generally distributed, though 

 nowhere common, and the following are the principal recorded 

 localities : Cape Colony — Cape division, December, Beaufort "West 

 division and Caledon (S. A. Mus.), Grahamstown (Atherstone), Bast 

 London (Eickards and Wood), Oleyvenhout drift near Upington, 

 January and February (Bradshaw) ; Uplands of Natal (Woodward) ; 

 Orange Eiver Colony — Kroonstad in summer (Symonds) ; Trans- 

 vaal — Potchefstroom, November to March (Ayres) ; Mashonaland 

 (Marshall) ; German south-west Africa, Gt. Namaqualand, Damara- 

 land and Ondonga in Ovampoland, January (Andersson) ; Chicowa, 

 October and Zumbo, November, on the Zambesi (Alexander). 



Habits. — The Pale Harrier resembles other harriers in its 

 habits ; it is usually to be seen flying low near the ground rather 

 leisurely and with a somewhat wavering flight, in search of small 

 rodents, birds, or even grasshoppers and locusts, which form the 



