Genus — L EUCOSPIZA. 
Leucospiza Kaup, Classif. Saugeth. u Vogel, 
p. 119, 1844 .. .. .. .. Type L. novcBhollandicB. 
Also spelt — 
Levcospizia Kaup, Archiv. fur Naturg., 1850, p. 36. 
Levcospizias Sundevall, Meth. Nat. Av. Disp. Tent., p. 107 note, 1872. 
Small Aquiline birds with short biUs, short wings, long tail and medium 
legs. 
The bill is short, very hooked, tip very sharp and narrow ; at the 
base the bill is deep and broad with a large cere ; the nostrils are 
small oval apertures, semi-operculate, placed in the upper part of culmen 
parallel to the culmen ridge: the loreal bristles reach but do not envelop 
the nasal openings. The lower edges of the upper mandibles more or 
less strongly sinuated^ but not toothed. Under mandible rather flat and 
shallow. 
The wings are comparatively short and somewhat roundedi, the first 
five quills emarginate on both vanes. The first primary is very short, the 
fourth and fifth subequal and longest, the third longer than the sixth, 
the second subequal with the seventh : the first not much more than half 
the length of the fourth. 
The tail of twelve feathers is long, slightly roimded and about two- 
thirds the length of the wing. 
The legs in their main features agree with those of Circus, but they 
are not quite so long : the tarsus is less than half the length of the tail 
but more than a quarter that of the wing. 
The middle toe is about two-thirds the length of the tarsus: the claws 
are very large and strong, the hind claw especially so, being longer than 
the inner claw which is much longer than the other two. 
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