Montagu's harrier. 153 



throat ; rest of under -parts white broadly streaked chestnut- 

 brown ; wings when moulted much as adult male but not so pure 

 grey and lesser coverts with narrow rufous edgings ; bars on tail 

 considerably darker than in adult, and usually extending across 

 both webs except in central pair which have very faint indications 

 of broken bars. 



Second summer. Male. — After second moult becomes like 

 adult male but feathers of crown and nape and to less extent chin, 

 throat and breast very narrowly edged rufous ; rest of upper-parts 

 browner and less grey than in adult ; grey of breast restricted to 

 upper part ; pale chestnut streaks of rest of under-parts wider 

 than in adult ; barring of tail-feathers darker ; grey of wing- 

 feathers more tinged brown than in adult and black bars on 

 secondaries more prominent. 



First summer. Female. — Like adult female but upper-parts 

 rather darker, under-parts darker, tail-feathers darker and central 

 pair dark brown not greyish, wing-feathers without grey tinge. 

 After next moult females appear indistinguishable from adult. 



N.B. — The melanistic variety has whole body-plumage brown-black 

 with varying amount of greyish tinge on upper-parts and throat, 

 wing-coverts and especially primary -co verts, upper tail-coverts and 

 tail ; sometimes (probably in female or young) bases of wing- 

 feathers are whitish and tail browner with faint dark bars and 

 occasionally feathers of nape with rufous-buff edges. An example 

 of the melanistic variety had when in the nest " long blackish- 

 brown down." 



Measurements and structure. — $ wing 350 (one 340)-370 (one 

 380) mm., tail 200-220, tarsus 55-60, bill from cere 15.5-16 (12 

 measured). 5 wing 350 (one 335)-380. Primaries : 1st between 

 5th and 7th, 3rd longest, 2nd and 4th 10-25 mm. shorter, 5th 55-65 

 shorter, 6th 85-105 shorter ; 2nd to 4th emarginated on outer and 

 1st to 3rd on inner webs (emarglnation on outer web of 2nd 15-30 

 mm. beyond tips of primary-coverts). Rest of structure as Marsh- 

 Harrier but only about one-fourth of front of tarsus feathered. 



Soft parts.- — Bill black, greenish-grey at base of lower mandible ; 

 cere, legs and feet yellow ; iris yellow to yellowish-brown (juv.). 



Characters. — No subspecies. Long wings and striped belly 

 distinguish adult male and almost uniform rufous-buff under-parts 

 juvenile from C. cyaneus, while in all plumages much shorter and 

 unemarginated 5th primary and rather shorter 4th primary are 

 distinctive. Female and young of C. macrourus are very similar 

 but emarginations of their primaries both on outer and inner webs 

 are higher i.e., nearer bases of feathers, that on outer web of 2nd 

 being nearly hidden by primary-coverts. 



Field-characters. — Not unlike Hen-Harrier in behaviour and 

 appearance, but of even more slender build. Male has some 



