60 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



equal to the sixth ; second equal to the fourth. Upon the whole it appears that 

 specific distinctions among- these birds, when drawn from the proportions of all the 

 quill feathers, unsupported by other considerations, are liable to much objection, 

 since we see that these characters vary in birds obviously of the same species, 

 while others, perfectly distinct, agree in this particular. The Egyptian Circus 

 gallinarius of Savigny (which, by a note of M. Temminck's, attached to the speci- 

 mens in the Paris Museum, he seems to confound with the European species) has, 

 nevertheless, all the indications of being distinct : the membrane between the toes 

 is particularly small. There is a black variety of C. cineraceus (a specimen of 

 which was shot near Chartres by M. Marchand, and is described in the Bull, des 

 Sciences, iii., pi. 12, f. 1.), which must not, however, be confounded with another 

 species, from Southern Africa, having the plumage black and the tail barred with 

 white. 



We have considered it better to offer these general observations to the reader, 

 rather than to hazard any direct opinion on the birds before us. The whole of 

 the Harriers appear very imperfectly known ; and nothing short of an actual ac- 

 quaintance with the birds in a state of nature, or a perfect series of specimens of 

 different ages, will solve the doubts that now impede their clear investigation. — Sw. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of (No. 3.) a mature male, killed on the plains of the Saskatchewan, May 17, 1827. 



Colour of the dorsal aspect of the head, neck, and lesser wing coverts, bluish-grey, with 

 darker shafts. The back, scapularies, and tertiaries, have a deeper hue, verging to greyish or 

 broccoli brown. There is a patch on the nape of the neck composed of feathers having white 

 bases, brown centres, and ferruginous borders, all of which colours are partially seen. The 

 quill feathers and greater coverts are blackish-brown towards their points, bluish-grey towards 

 the base of the exterior webs, and white, barred or spotted with brown, on the interior ones. 

 Some of the primaries and secondaries are tipped with white. The tail coverts are pure white, 

 forming a bar across the base of the tail an inch and a half wide. The two middle tail feathers 

 are bluish-grey, tinged with brown, bordered at the tip with soiled white, and crossed by five 

 blackish-brown bars, of which the terminal one is half an inch broad ; the others are very 

 narrow and faint. The outer tail feather is brownish-grey exteriorly and at the tip, and its inner 

 web is white, with five narrow brown bars. The other feathers exhibit more grey and less white 

 the nearer they are to the middle of the tail, and have the brown bars extending to both webs. 



Under surface. — The cheeks and auriculars are ash-grey, with a paler border to the 

 orbit. The short feathers composing the semicircle behind the auriculars are tipped with the 

 colour of the crown of the head ; but they have dark shafts and some pale yellowish-brown 

 mottlings towards their bases, which partially appear : in their texture they contrast strongly 

 with the more wiry auriculars. The under surface of the neck is slate-grey. The breast is 



