Allen’s naturalist’s library. 
150 
ground-colour is white or faint greenish-white, and the eggs 
are often quite uniform, or show faint spottings or marblings of 
pale rufous. On the other hand, they are sometimes richly 
marked and clouded with rufous or rufous-brown. Every 
gradation in a series of clutches is exhibited in the Seebohin 
collection in the British Museum, from unsullied white eggs to 
those in which the ground-colour is almost hidden by a con- 
fusion of mottlings and cloudings of rich chestnut or rufous- 
brown. Axis, 2’i-2'4; diam., I’j-i'p. 
II. THE DESERT BUZZARD. BUTEO DESERTORUM. 
Falco desertorum, Baud. Traite, ii. p. 164 (1800). 
Buteo desertorum, Sharpe, Cat. B. i. p. 179 (1874) ; Dresser, B. 
Eur. V. p. 457, pi. 332 (1875) ; Seebohm, Br. B. i. p. 122, 
note (1883) ; B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 94 (1883). 
Adult Male.— Smaller than B. buteo, and much more rufous, 
especially on the upper tail-coverts and tail ; the bars on the tail, 
nine or ten cere lemon-yellow ; bill dark lead-colour, lighter 
near the throat and cere; feet lemon-yellow; iris light hazel 
or yellowish. Total length, 21 inches; culmen, 1-55; wing, 
1 3 '4; tail, 7 '8; tarsus, 3' o. 
Young Birds. — Much paler than the adults, especially on the 
under surface, the tail always showing a rufous tint, and having 
as many as thirteen bars. 
The rufous character of the plumage of this Buzzard is the 
best test for recognising it from the Common Buzzard, but it 
is sometimes very difficult to distinguish the two species, as 
B. desertorum gets very dark in its older stages, while B. buteo 
not unfrequently exhibits a shade of rufous on the tail. 
Range in Great Britain. — The present species has been sup- 
posed to have occurred three times in England : twice in North- 
umberland, and once at Everley iii Wiltshire, where a speci- 
men was shot in September, 1864. The two Northumbrian 
birds may have been wrongly identified, but the Wiltshire 
example was considered by the late Mr. J. H. Gurney to be an 
undoubted Desert Buzzard. 
Range outside tie British Islands. — This species occurs in the 
