iris yellow. Total length 17*5 inches, culmen 1T5, wing 13 2,
tail 8*8, tarsus 2‘65.
Adult female.—Above brown, the bead and hind neck streaked
with tawny fulvous, with which most of the feathers of the upper
surface are margined and tipped, the small wing-coverts especially
broadly; frontal feathers, a superciliary line as well as a spot below
the eye white; cheeks and ear-coverts dark brown, very slightly
streaked with tawny; facial ruff dark brown, plainly streaked with
creamy buff; wings nearly uniform sepia-brown, tipped with buffy
white, primaries externally shaded with ashy grey; primaries plainly,
secondaries obsoletely barred with darker brown, plainer underneath,
where the inner webs are creamy buff; upper tail-coverts white, barred
across or diamond-spotted with dark brown; tail pale tawny, crossed
with four broad blackish bars, the interspaces inclining to white on
the outer feathers, the black bars replaced by rufous on external
rectrix, the two centre feathers ashy brown, with six blackish brown
cross bars, the subterminal one broadest; under surface of body
creamy white, with broad longitudinal streaks of brown on chest,
becoming narrower and more rufous on lower breast and abdomen;
under tail-coverts clearly rufescent; under wing-coverts creamy buff,
with diamond-shaped spots and streaks of brown, the lower series
barred across with blackish; axillaries brown, inclining to rufous, with
large oval spots of fulvous on both webs; cere greenish yellow;
bill horny black, gape dull greenish; feet yellow; iris dark hazel.
Total length 20’5 inches, wing 14-7, tail 10'5, tarsus 2'9.
Young.—Brown, like the old female, but not so much variegated
above, with tawny margins to the feathers; under surface entirely
pale fawn-colour, the facial ruff of this same colour, and therefore
contrasting in marked prominence with the dark brown cheeks and
ear-coverts, the flank-feathers and axillaries with indistinct brown
central streaks; frontal feathers, superciliary streak, and spot under
the eye whitish; upper tail-coverts white, spotted with pale rufous ;
tail much as in old female, but the dark bars only five in number.
Fig. Gould, B. Eur. i. pi. 34.
1 0 . C ir cu s pygargus. Montagu’s Harrier.
Circus dnerascens, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 34 (1867). ,
Montagu’s Harrier is rare in South Africa. Mr. Atmore procured
a fine adult male at Swellendam, and we shot an adult female and a
young bird near the. Observatory at Cape Town, below which is a
marsh much frequented by Harriers of several descriptions. I t has
also been procured at Tharfield, near the Kowie, by Mr. Holden
Bowker.
I t preys upon reptiles, mice, and small birds, remains of which
we found in the stomach of those procured. Mr. Atmore writes :
1| This fellow hunts his ground like a pointer, and drops suddenly on
its prey, which, from his minute inspection of fences, I suspect to. be
mice.”
Concerning its appearance in the Damara country Mr. Gurney has
the following note :—“ I have seen specimens obtained by Mr. An-
dersson at Objimbinque in Damara Land and at Ondonga, Ovampo
Land.”
Adult Male. General colour of upper parts, neck, and breast light
bluish-grey; the quill-feathers of the wings inclining to black; belly
and thighs white, the latter with the flanks longitudinally streaked
with bright rufous. Tail pearl-grey above, white beneath, the inner
webs obscurely barred. Two outermost feathers on each side barred
with rufous, which is deepest on the basal part of the feathers.
Irides, legs, and feet fine yellow. Length, 17” ; wing 14-|'/ ; tail, 9".
Female and immature Male. General colour umber-brown above;
below pale rufous-yellow, faintly streaked along the shaft of each
feather with a darker tint; collar round the neck rufous. Outer
tail-feathers white, the rest barred distinctly white and brown. A
young female shot by ourselves on the Cape Elats is very dark-brown
above, many of the feathers being edged with bright rufous; below
bright rufous, streaked with black.
Fig. Gould, B. Eur. pi. 3 5 .
11. C ircus maurus. Black Harrier.
This bird has been more than once confounded with the black
variety of Montagu’s Harrier which not unfrequently occurs in
Europe, but this idea is erroneous, for it is a good species, distinct in
all its plumages.
It is not at all uncommon in the neighbourhood of Cape Town,
and it is also found about Grahams Town;—indeed throughout the
Colony. Mr. Rickard tells us it is not very common near Port
Elizabeth but very plentiful at East London. Victorin procured it
both in the Karroo and at the Knysna. Although common enough