232 
COMMON HARIUJ-R, 
grey, the inner webs of all the feathers except 
three in the middle, paler, changing to white on 
the outermost pair, and clouded with obscure bands 
of blackish grey, but with no trace of brown or 
reddish. The upper tail coverts, belly, vent, 
thighs, inner wing coverts, and axillaries, pure and 
unspotted white ; the shafts of the feathers on the 
flanks sometimes black, but no spotting or reddish 
marking as exhibited in the C. Americanus of the 
Northern Zoology ; legs and irides gamboge 
yellow ; length of a specimen before us in full 
plumage, scarcely exceeds sixteen inches ; length 
of the wing from shoulder to extremity of third 
quill, about twelve and a half inches. 
The female varies more than the male in 
the tints and markings of her plumage ; the 
ruff is more conspicuously marked ; more so, 
indeed, than in any other of our British Harriers. 
The auricular feathers are long, of the loose and 
hairy texture of these forming the disk of the face 
of the owls. The general tint of the upper parts 
is umber brown, of a paler or darker shade, 
glossed with purple, and having the edges of the 
feathers marked more or less with reddish or 
ochraceous. The feathers of the ruff are yellowish 
or reddish white, bending inwards, not so compact 
in texture as those of the owls, and marked along 
the shaft with a streak of deep umber brown, 
varying in breadth. The quills are umber brown, 
