HONEV BUZZARD. 87 



borders ; the rest of the plumage dark and light brown, vary- 

 ing in different lights, and strongly glossed with a purple 

 bloom. A few of the long tertial feathers had a dark angular 

 patch near the end, and some showed indications of a dark 

 bar above it ; the upper tail-coverts white ; the quill-feathers 

 dusky ; the third and fourth the longest in the wing. The 

 tail, of which the feathers are broad, was very irregularly 

 barred with dark and light brown, as represented in the plate, 

 and tipped with dirty white ; the middle feathers longer than 

 the outer. On the under parts the feathers were all pale 

 yellowish-brown ; every feather when raised or displaced, 

 showing its hidden parts towards the body to be white. The 

 feathers on the lower part of the body were of a looser tex- 

 ture than above. 



In the perfect adult plumage of the male, the whole head, 

 including the forehead, nape, and corner of the mouth, are 

 ash-grey ; the throat pure white, the whole under parts the 

 same, tinged on the lower breast and flanks with yellowish 

 buff colour ; the shafts of the feathers are dark, and near the 

 tip of each feather is a well-defined crescent-shaped patch of 

 bright rufous brown. The upper plumage, from the nape of 

 the neck downwards, is deep brown tinged with ash-colour ; 

 the feathers tipped with white, and many of them crossed by 

 dusky marks forming dark bars when the wing is closed. In 

 this plumage the cere is said to be grey, the inside and cor- 

 ners of the mouth, iris, and legs orange. The tail is brown 

 tipped with white, and crossed by three broad dusky bars, the 

 one nearest the tips the broadest ; between which broad bars 

 are several narrower ones. 



The tail feathers are white at the root, which is the case 

 with most, if not all the feathers of the body ; and this is in 

 perfect harmony with the description given by Willoughby, 

 of the young birds that he obtained from the nest, which he 

 describes as covered with white down spotted with black ; 



