Birds of Celebes; Falconidae. 
7 
bill somewhat weak, with a blunt festoon: tarsi naked (except at the top 
anteriorly), clad in front with transverse shields, elsewhere with small 
reticulate scales. Food: amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, etc. Eggs 
2 — 4 in number. About 18 species, migratory and stationary, distributed over 
the greater part of the world. 
2. CIRCUS ASSIMILIS Jard. Selby. 
Allied Harrier. 
Circus assimilis (I) Jard. & Selby, 111. Orn. 1826, I, pi. 51 type examd. i) ; (2)Sch\., ^^as.P.-B. 
Circi, 1862, 9; (UT) id., Valkv. 1866, 29, 66, pi. 20, 12,^-, (4) AYalden, Tr. Z. S. 
1872, VTTI, 37; (5) Sharpe, Oat. B. 1874,1,63; (6) Gurney, Bus, 18«5, 225; (7j 
id., Diiu-n. B. of Prey, 1884, 23; (S) W. Bias., Ztscbr. Ges. Om. 1885, 205, 234; f9j 
North, Nests & Eggs B. Austr. 1889, 1, pi. H, f- 4 (egg); (W Webers 
Rciso in Ost-Ind. 1893 HI, 272; (11) M. & Wg., Ahli. Mus. Dresden 1896 no. 1, p. 7; 
(12) Harter t, Nov. Zool. 1896, 163. 
n. Circus jardinii Gld., P. Z. S. 1837, 141; (I) id., B. Austr. 1848, I, pi. 27-, (2) 8. Mull., 
Eeizen Ind. Arch. 1857, II, 8; (3) Gld., Handh. B. Austr. 1865, I, 60; (4) Schl., 
Rev. Acc. 1873, 50. 
Ij. Spilocircus jardinii (1) Kaup, Isis, 1847, 102. 
G. Strigiceps jardinii (1) Bp., Oonsi). 1850, I, 34. 
“Bokan buri”, S. Celebes, Platen 8. 
For further references see Sharpe 5. 
Figures and descriptions. Jardine & Selby J; Gould a I, a 5; Schlegel III, North .9 
(egg); Kaup b T, Sharpe 5; W. Bias. 8. 
Male, nearly adult. General colour- above brownish ash, darker on head; forehead, ear- 
coverts and crown with rufous margins to the feathers; secondaries pure ashy, 
banded with dark brown — indistinctly on the inner web; wing-coverts, scainilars 
and upper tail-coverts marked with short bars or large spots of white, which are 
more indistinct and ashy on exposed parts of the plumage; shoulder rufous; tail 
above ashy, below wliite, crossed with seven bars of blackish and terminally margined 
with white; under surface — including under wing- and tail-coverts and thighs — 
cinnamon-rufous, lighter on the tliighs and abdomen, and sjjanglcd all over with 
white spots arranged two and two at short intervals on the opposite webs of the 
feathers. “Iris sulphur-yellow; cere and bill bluish grey (cere pale yellow — 
Wallace); tip of bill black; feet citron-yellow” (Platen). Nr. 6735, Tjamba, May). 
Old. Crown of head, cheeks and ear-coverts tawny-rufous, with blackish mesial streaks 
to the feathers (cT, I^ake Posso, 14. Feb. 95, P. & F. Sarasin). 
Female. 
Young. 
Like the male, but larger. 
Above brown with fulvous margins to the feathers; upper tail-coverts white 
washed with rufous and having dark brown centres; tail sepia-brown tipped with 
11 The type of Circus assimilis J. S. in the British hluseum is immature and not normal differing 
from al other ^ecimens there of this species in the coloration of the wings and tail. The tail is nearly uniform 
brownish ashy with a rufous wash at its sides, marked with 3 or 4 imperfect bars of brown towards the base, 
followed by a clear space, with an imperfect terminal bar. Upper tail-coverts white, a few of the longer ones 
with a bar of brown towards the tip. 
