CIRCUS SmrUS0Nn._AachiLRB.7öxmg.
(Av&s_RU.-te 4 3 ) **
A ves.—P lates XLIII and XLIV.
C. pallid^ griseus, flavo-griseo umbratus; subtus albus, gutture pectoreque griseo-tinctis; can das tectricibus
superioribus albis, maculis, fasciisque flavo-griseis notatis; rectricibus duabus intermediia griseis, flavo-
griseo tinctis, lateralibus parti m griseis partim albis fasciis brunneis sex notatis. Rostro livido-nigro;
cera, pedibns, oeulisque flavis.
Longitudo 19 unc.
Circus Swainsonii, Smith.—South African Quarterly Journal, vol. i. page 384, 1830.
Circus pallidus, Sykes.—Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1832, page 80.
(Adult Male. Plate XLIII. Fig. 1.)
C olour.—Above ash-grey, clouded with yellowish-grey. The front, the
eye-brows, the upper tail-coverts, the inner surface of the shoulders, and all
the under parts snow-white, the throat and breast tinted with pearl-grey,
and the tail-coverts blotched and barred with yellow or brownish-grey.
Lesser wing-coverts, primary and secondary quill-coverts, scapulars, tertiary
quill-feathers, and a few of the innermost secondaries the same colour as the
back; the secondary quill-coverts narrowly tipped with white, and like the
tertiaries and innermost secondaries broadly edged internally with the same
colour. The basal half of the inner vane of each primary quill-feather white,
variegated with incomplete brown bars, the last half dark liver-brown, passing
into white at the extreme points; outer vanes towards the tips brown, more or
less deeply tinged with grey, the three or four outermost grey towards the
quills. The two centre tail-feathers ash-grey clouded with yellowish-grey,
and with faint indications of dark bars on each side of the shafts; the next
two of each side, more or less of the same colour, and with six imperfect dull
brown bars, each obscurely edged anteriorly and posteriorly with dirty white;
the three outermost feathers white with six incomplete brownish-grey bars, those
of the outer vanes on some of the feathers being connected with each other
externally by the same colour, the bars of the exterior feather of each side
tinged with buff-orange ; the tips of all the feathers white. Under surface of tail
white, with the dark bars obscurely marked. Bill livid black, with a yellow
blotch on the edge of both upper and under mandible near base; cere, legs and
toes yellow. Claws a dark horn colour. Eyes yellow.
The feathers of all the upper parts of this bird have a distinct silky lustre.
F orm, &c.—Figure long and slender. Bill delicate and strongly hooked,
the cere covered with strong recumbent bristles; cervical collar distinctly
marked, wings when folded reach beyond the commencement of the last third