COMMON HARRIER. 
233 
often grey on their outer webs, pale coloured on 
the lower surface, and distinctly barred with 
brown. The rump is pure white, conspicuously 
seen during flight, and giving rise to the well- 
known name of Ringtail. The tail is ample, pale 
at the tip, and barred alternately with umber 
brown, and reddish or yellowish brown, the 
intensity of the shades lessening on the outer 
feathers, and on the inside webs. The under 
parts in one specimen before me are ochraceous, 
darker and more rufous on the breast, and having 
the centre of each feather broadly streaked with 
reddish umber brown, except on the thighs and 
tail coverts, which are paler and spotless. In 
another, on a paler ground the dark brown streaks 
are much broader, occupying all the feather 
except the margin, while the feathers of the 
thighs are thickly marked with irregular bars of 
pale reddish brown, a similar marking spreading 
also over the tail coverts. The length of these 
females is from eighteen to twenty inches. 
