CIRCUS MELANOLEUCUS. 
(THE PIED HARRIER.) 
Falco melanoleucus , Forster, Ind. Zool. p. 12, pi. 11 (1781). 
Circus melanoleucus , Vieill. N. Diet. d’Hist. Nat. iv. p. 465 (1816); Gray, Gen. Birds, i. p. 32 ; 
Kelaart’s Prodromus, Cat. p. 115; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 105; 
Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 98; Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 307; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, 
p. 414 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds, i. p. 61 (1874) ; Hume, Stray Feath. vol. iii. p. 33 ; Swinhoe, 
Ibis, 1874, p. 266, pi. 10; Gurney, Ibis, 1875, pp. 226-7, and 1876, p. 130; Hume, 
Str. Feath. vol. v. p. 11 (1877). 
The Black-and-White Falcon, Pennant, Ind. Zool. p. 33, pi. 2 (1790); Kelaart, Prodromus. 
Pahatai , Hind. ; Allah Petaha, Nepalese (a.pud Jerdon). 
Kurula-goya, Sinhalese. 
Adult male. Length to front of cere 16-5 to 18 inches ; culmen from cere 0-75 • 
parts of India, 13-7, 13-9, 14-2, 14-2, 14-5; tail 8-2 to 9; tarsus 2-9 to 3-25; 
055 ; height of bill at cere 035. 
wing, of 5 examples from different 
inid toe 1 "2 to 1*4, claw (straight) 
Obs. In Mr. Hume’s table of measurements of 34 old males (Str. Feath. vol. v. p. 12) the wings range from 13-2 to 
14'34 inches, and the tarsi from 2 - 8 to 3 - 25. 
Iris bright golden yellow ; cere varying from grey to greenish yellow ; bill black, paling into leaden at the base ; legs 
and feet chrome-yellow. 
Entire head, neck, chest, back, upper scapular feathers, and median wing-coverts black, glossy on the upper parts and 
dull on the fore neck and chest ; least and greater wing-coverts, point of the wing, shorter primaries, secondaries, 
rump, and upper tail-coverts pale silvery grey, the quills brownish at the tips ; longer primaries blackish on the 
terminal half, with the bases of the imier webs white ; tertials. brownish near the tips, much darker in some 
.examples than in others ; tail light sullied grey, paler on the lateral feathers ; shafts of all but the latter feathers 
brownish ; beneath from the chest, together with the under wing, pure unmarked white. 
Young, Iris “ ochreous yellow ” (Swinhoe) ; cere greenish grey or greenish yellow ; gape and loreal skin yellowish ; 
bill pale at the base. 
I subjoin here the description of Mr. Swinhoe’s specimen, figured in ‘ The Ibis,’ 1874, inasmuch as it appears, according 
to Mr. Glurney’s judgment (‘ Ibis,’ 1875, p. 226), to be, in all probability, the first plumage of the bird : — “ Upper 
parts light brown, the feathers on the back dark-stemmed. Crown, nape, and scapulars blackish brown in centre 
of feathers, with broad yellowish-red margins. Underparts light buff, with yellowish-brown streaks, broad aud 
darker on the breast ; tibials and vent chestnut-buff, with darker stems to feathers. Quills brown, tipped light, 
with lightish stems, and barred across inner webs, more obscurely towards their tips ; axillaries reddish cream, 
with reddish-brown spots ; under wing whitish cream, with conspicuous bars. Upper tail-coverts greyish white ; 
tail whitish brown, with three broad bars ; a fourth, indistinct bar crosses near base of tail.” 
Obs. This example appears to be a male, as it has a wing of 13'0 inches only, although it is worthy of remark that 
in some Harriers immature females are sometimes smaller than the other sex. The plumage of the specimen, as 
described, is much like that of an adult female to be noticed hereafter ; and the presence of three “ broad bars ” on 
the tail instead of a greater number of narrow ones, as ought to be the case in a young bird, is singular. 
Mr. Gurney remarks, in the same article, that “the progress towards maturity is marked in all cases by the spreading 
of a conspicuous grey tint over the greater and middle wing-coverts, and over the outer webs of the secondaries and 
of the upper portion of the primaries.” This is doubtless the case up to a certain point in the bird’s change of 
plumage ; but it appears evident that the entire adult plumage, as is only to be expected in an attire so marked in 
C 
