THE SPARROW-HAWK. 163 



under wing-coverts white tinged buff especially on edge of wing and 

 barred black-brown with little rufous ; tail-feathers brown washed 

 dark slate and narrowly tipped greyish-white with broad dark 

 brown penultimate bar and four and five narrower ones, under side 

 appears grey barred dark brown ; primaries brown, outer webs and 

 tips tinged grey, inner webs barred dark brown and basal portions 

 white ; secondaries same but more grey on outer webs and tips 

 and white on inner webs extending more towards tips ; primary- 

 coverts brown tinged grey ; rest of coverts as upper-parts but 

 lesser coverts round bend of wing more or less tipped rufous. This 

 plumage is acquired by complete moult commencing with wing- 

 and tail-feathers in May, body not starting usually until later and 

 chiefly July-Aug., sometimes not complete before Oct., and excep- 

 tionally Nov. (one full moult Jan. !). 



Adult female. — Like adult male but upper-parts considerably 

 browner sometimes only tinged slate but often slate-brown w T ith 

 dark slate crown, feathers on sides of nape sometimes barred dark 

 brown and white ; upper part of ear-coverts brown to dark slate- 

 brown, lower part white to bumsh-white streaked dark brown and 

 often tinged rufous ; chin and throat white to buff streaked dark 

 brown ; rest of under-parts white to pale buff: closely barred dark 

 brown tinged here and there rufous-brown (bars varying but usually 

 fairly broad and dark, less often narrow and paler) usually some 

 rufous on flanks and occasionally considerable amount on breast 

 and flanks ; under tail-coverts more often with bars than in male ; 

 axillaries and under wing-coverts strongly barred black-brown ; 

 wing- and tail-feathers as in male but browner less grey. Moult 

 as male. 



Nestling. — At first rather thinly covered with shortish white 

 down (a). Down (b) very sparse indeed, white. Later down (c) 

 grows thickly, pushes out the few tufts of down (b), conceals most 

 of down (a) and is coarser, longer and more " woolly," white except 

 on wings and back which have pale bufnsh-grey tinge. (See Pere- 

 grine, p. 108). 



Juvenile. Male. — Whole upper-parts dark brown, feathers 

 narrowly edged rufous but those of upper mantle below white of 

 nape broadly edged ; over eye, nape and scapulars as adult ; under- 

 parts varying white to pale buff and sometimes rufous-buff, chin 

 and throat streaked dark brown, under tail-coverts often tipped 

 buff and usually with a few spots or short streaks and occasionally 

 bars of dark brown, rest of under-parts barred brown and rufous- 

 brown, bars somewhat irregularly shaped especially on breast 

 where they form arrowhead markings of varying shape and on tibia 

 often very narrow V-shaped ; tail- and wing-feathers sometimes 

 much like adults but usually narrowly tipped and edged buff and 

 with some buff marks on tail-feathers ; wing-coverts as upper- 

 parts. Female. — Upper-parts like juvenile male but edgings to 

 feathers seldom so wide or rufous and thus usually less conspicuous 



VOL. II. M 2 



