28 
FALCO CYANEUS. 
coverts are pure white, often, but not always, with a 
few rusty spots, constituting 1 the so called white rump, 
which is a constant mark of the species in all its states 
of plumage. The throat, breast, belly, vent, and femorals, 
pale yellowish rusty, streaked lengthwise with large 
acuminate brown spots darker and larger on the breast, 
and especially the under wing-coverts, obsolete on the 
lower parts of the body, which are not spotted. The 
quills are dark brown, whitish on the inner vane, and 
transversely banded with blackish ; the bands are much 
more conspicuous on the inferior surface, where the 
ground colour is grayish white. The tail is of a bright 
yellowish rusty, the two middle tail-feathers dark cine- 
reous; all are pure white at the origin, and regularly 
crossed with four or five broad blackish bands ; their 
tips are more whitish, and the inferior surface of a 
grayish white, like that of the quills, but very slightly 
tinged with rusty, the blackish bands appearing to great 
advantage, except on the outer feathers, where they are 
obsolete, being less defined even above. 
The young male is almost perfectly similar in appear- 
ance to the adult female, (which is not the case in the 
ash-coloured harrier,) being, however, more varied 
with rusty, and easily distinguished by its smaller size. 
It is in this state that Wilson has taken the species, his 
very accurate description being that of a young female. 
The male retains this plumage until he is two years 
old, after which he gradually assumes the gray plumage 
peculiar to the adult: of course they exhibit almost as 
many gradations as specimens, according to their more 
or less advanced age. The ash and white appear varied 
or mingled with rusty ; the wings, and especially the 
tail, exhibiting more or less indications of the bands of 
the young plumage. The male, when he may be called 
already adult, varies by still exhibiting the remains of 
bands on the tail, more or less marked or obliterated by 
the yellowish edges of the feathers of the back and 
wings, and especially by retaining on the hindhead a 
space tinged with rusty, with blackish spots. This space 
is more or less indicated, in the greater part, both of the 
