FALCONIDiE. 51 



the head this colour is unmixed, a little white appearing only at the base of the bill. On the 

 neck it is relieved by some of the feathers being edged with paler yellowish-brown. The 

 back, again, has a darker tint, approaching more nearly to liver-brown, and is unspotted. On 

 the rump there are a few bars and edgings of yellowish-brown. The primaries, their coverts, 

 and the secondaries, are of the prevailing tint, crossed by bars of dark liver-brown, the ter- 

 minal bar being by much the broadest. The secondaries and some of the adjoining primaries 

 are narrowly tipped with white, and both these classes of feathers have their inner webs to- 

 wards the quills barred with white and brown. Some of the longest tail coverts are white, 

 clouded by yellowish-brown and crossed by narrow bars of liver-brown. The tail is brownish- 

 orange, tipped with soiled white, with a subterminal bar of blackish-brown : there are also 

 traces of thirteen other brown bars. Under surface. The cheeks and neck beneath are 

 coloured as on the dorsal aspect ; the breast is white, with brown shafts ; and the belly and 

 flanks blackish-brown, with white blotches and cross bars. The vent and under tail coverts 

 are white. The thigh feathers are soiled yellowish-white, with narrow faint cross bars of 

 brown. The linings of the wings are white, with some yellowish-brown markings ; and there 

 is a large patch of blackish-brown adjoining to the upper edge of the wing. The greater inner 

 coverts are barred with brown. The inner surfaces of the quill feathers are blackish-brown 

 towards the tips and pearl-grey towards the quills, mottled with brown and crossed by narrow 

 bars of the same. The tail is slightly tinged with buff-orange beneath, and is crossed by very 

 faint bars of blackish-grey. Bill bluish-black. Legs bluish. 



Form, &c. — The head is rather large. The bill is wide at the base and compressed ante- 

 rior to the cere, with a roundish ridge and a strong hooked tip : the curve of the ridge is ellip- 

 tical, but it is not so much depressed at the base as that of the common Buzzard. The 

 cutting edge of the upper mandible has a very distinct obtuse lobe : the lower mandible is 

 obliquely truncated at the tip. The nostrils are oval, nearly longitudinal, and partly concealed 

 by hairs. The lores are densely covered with short white hair-like feathers, upon which long 

 black hairs are arranged in a stelliform manner. The eyebrow projects as in the Eagles. 

 Wings. The fourth quill feather is the longest ; the third and fifth are only a line or two 

 shorter ; the second and sixth are half an inch shorter than these three ; the seventh is more 

 than an inch shorter than the sixth ; and the eighth is equal to the first and about an inch 

 shorter than the seventh. The outer webs of the second, third, fourth, and fifth are chamfered 

 away towards their tips, and in the three latter very suddenly : the web of the sixth is narrowed 

 so gradually as not to produce a sinuation. The first to the fourth inclusive have their inner 

 webs strongly sinuated, and the fifth has a very oblique sinuation. The tarsi are strong, feathered 

 about two inches below the joint anteriorly, and protected beneath by seven large transverse 

 scales : naked their whole length posteriorly, with thirteen large scales. The hind toe is the 

 shortest, the outer one is nearly as long as the inner one, and the middle one is four or five 

 lines longer than these : the latter is connected to the outer one by a short web. There are 

 six or seven scutelli on the middle toe, and four on each of the others. 



H 2 



