CIRCUS SWAINSONII. 
of the tail; the third and fourth quill-feathers equal and longest. Tail long 
and slightly round at the point. Tarsi long and rather slender. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Inches. Lines. 
Length from the point of the hill to 
the tip of the tail 19 0 
Length of the bill from the gape 1 0 
of the wings when folded 13 0 
of the tail 9 6 
Inches. Lines. 
Length of the tarsus 2 6 
of the middle toe 1 2 
of the outer toe 0 9J 
of the inner toe 0 8J 
of the hinder toe 0 6 
( Middle Aged Male . — Plate XLII1. Fig 2.) 
Colour. — Above, a part of the plumage is purplish brown and a part dark 
silvery grey, the latter most advanced upon the shoulders and anterior 
parts of the wings. Chin, throat, and breast greyish white, variegated 
with large rusty brown stripes, one along the middle of each feather ; 
belly, flanks, thighs, vent, and under tail-coverts white, with a number of 
longitudinal stripes of a colour intermediate between tile and hyacinth-red ; 
upper tail-coverts white, clouded with grey towards the point. 
( Young Female . — Plate XLIV.) 
Colour. — The top of the head, cheeks, ear-coverts, upper surface of 
the neck, interscapulars, back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts purplish 
brown with a satin lustre, the feathers of the top of the head and the lesser 
wing-coverts tipped with pale buff-orange, those of the back with reddish 
orange. The primary and secondary wing-coverts and the quill-feathers 
umber-brown with a purple shade ; the primary wing-coverts are tipped with 
white, and the first half of the inner vanes of the primary quill-feathers are 
white barred with dark-brown, the outer vanes strongly tinted with grey ; the 
quill-feathers narrowly tipped with dirty white. The four middle tail-feathers 
barred alternately with purplish brown and greyish brown, the bars of the 
latter colours clouded with buff or w hite shades ; the lateral feathers dirty 
white with three or four rusty brown bars ; the tips of all bright sienna yellow. 
Eye-brows, space under eye, and the rump white ; cervical collar, throat, and 
all the under parts intermediate between sienna-yellow and Dutch-orange ; 
several of the feathers of cervical collar towards its upper extremities brown 
near centre, and several of those of the breast and belly the same colour 
near their shaft. 
This bird has a wide range in South Africa, and I have myself seen specimens of it, though 
sparingly, in the neighbourhood of Cape Town, and also near Port Natal, the mouth of the 
Orange River, and the Tropic of Capricorn. Like its congeners it flies low, often almost 
touching the surface of the ground, and generally in a straight line, rather than in circles. Its 
