Part 82

Batan (Edmonds); Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Heriot, Whitehead); Mindanao (Platen); Mindoro (Everett); Palawan (Whitehead, Everett); Sulu (Guillemard). Eastern Siberia; in winter to China, Indo-Burmese countries, and Malay Archipelago.

Adult male.--Above black, nape and hind neck narrowly streaked with white; feathers of lower back and rump tipped with ashy gray or white; sides of head and ear-coverts black; lower parts white; chin, throat, and breast with bold black shaft-streaks; primaries black, white for basal third; alula, primary-coverts, and secondaries ashy white with blackish shafts; secondary-coverts black, more or less mixed with ashy white; under coverts and axillars white; tail ashy white; upper tail-coverts white. Iris bright yellow; legs dull yellow; cere waxy green; bill and nails black. The above specimen from Tarlac Province, Luzon, measures, 520 in length; wing, 410; tail, 230; culmen from base, 33; tarsus, 92; middle toe with claw, 63.

Younger male.--Color pattern similar; upper parts brown; white streaks on head and neck more numerous; under parts white with wider streaks of reddish brown which are also present on flanks and abdomen; primaries black, some of them barred with ashy white; wing-coverts brown with less white than the adult; primary-coverts and alula ashy white but with blackish brown bars; under wing-coverts white, streaked with blackish brown; axillars white, streaked and barred with reddish brown. Length, 533; wing, 400; tail, 235; culmen from base, 32; tarsus, 80; middle toe with claw, 61.

"Adult female.--Above brown slightly shaded with ashy, the dorsal feathers obsoletely margined with dull rufous; crown and hind neck tawny-buff, paler on the neck, all the feathers mesially streaked with brown; scapulars and wing-coverts margined and barred with tawny or fulvous, the least wing-coverts more conspicuously margined with rufous; quills brown, narrowly tipped with whitish, externally shaded with ashy gray, the secondaries less distinctly, and all barred across with darker brown; under surface of wing white, the dark bars showing very distinctly; lower back and rump brown, the feathers distinctly tipped with pale rufous; upper tail-coverts pure white; tail ashy gray, tipped with fulvous and crossed with five blackish bands, the subterminal one much the broadest, the ashy gray interspaces inclining to or replaced by pale tawny on the outer feathers; lores as well as a distinct eyebrow and ear-coverts buffy white; sides of face and of neck, as well as the facial ruff, rufous-buff streaked with dark brown; under surface of body creamy buff, with central pointed marks of rufous-brown to the feathers, more distinct on the fore neck and under wing- and tail-coverts; flank-feathers and axillars rufous-brown, with large rounded spots of creamy buff on both webs; under wing-coverts and thighs creamy buff, with irregular central streaks of rufous-brown occupying the major part of the greater under wing-coverts. Length, 584; wing, 394; tail, 279; tarsus, 79." (Sharpe.)

"Adult female.--Brown above, the feathers throughout with pale rufous edges; tail-coverts white and rufous; tail with about six dark cross-bands, which disappear in old individuals; lower parts buff, with broad rufous-brown shaft-stripes. The quills are dark brown but become grayish in old birds.

"Young birds so closely resemble those of C. æruginosus as to be indistinguishable at times. The pale head and neck-feathers are always striated in C. spilonotus, but the body, wings, and tail are uniform brown or variegated with buff on the wing-coverts, back, and breast. Generally, though not invariably, traces of bars will be found on some of the tail-feathers of C. spilonotus, but this occasionally happens in C. æruginosus also.

"Length, of male, 508; tail, 235; wing, 394; tarsus, 89; tail of female, 254; wing, 419; tarsus, 94." (Blanford.)

174. CIRCUS MELANOLEUCOS (Pennant).

PIED MARSH HAWK.

Falco melanoleucos Pennant, Ind. Zool. (1769), 2, pl. 2. Circus melanoleucus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874), 1, 61; Hand-List (1899), 1, 245; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1895), 3, 385; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 237; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 41; McGregor, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 322, pl. 1.

Bantayan (McGregor); Basilan (Mearns); Bohol (McGregor); Calayan (McGregor); Guimaras (Steere Exp.); Luzon (Steere Exp., Whitehead); Mindanao (Steere Exp., Celestino); Negros (Bourns & Worcester, Keay); Sibay (McGregor & Worcester); Sulu (Guillemard); Ticao (McGregor). Eastern Siberia and Mongolia; in winter to China, northeastern Indian Peninsula, and Indo-Chinese countries.

"Adult male.--Upper parts glossy black; rump and upper tail-coverts white, the latter with two or three broad cross-bars of black or ashy gray, the former also shaded with gray; wing-coverts silvery gray, margined with white, with a broad band of black feathers extending from the bend of wing parallel with its margin and joining the median coverts, which are also black; primaries black; primary-coverts and secondaries silvery gray, except the innermost, which are black; tail entirely silvery gray, tipped with white, below and on the inner webs white; sides of face and neck, throat, and chest glossy black; rest of under surface, including under wing- and tail-coverts, pure white. Bill and cere black; feet yellow; iris yellow. Length, 457; culmen, 25; wing, 356; tail, 216; tarsus, 76." (Sharpe.)

"Adult female.--Above dark brown, the feathers of the crown and neck with rufous edges, those of the nape broadly bordered with white; a well-marked ruff of small white or buffy white feathers with brown shaft-stripes; around eyes whitish; cheeks and ear-coverts dirty white or pale rufous with brown streaks; smaller coverts along forearm white (in younger birds rufous) with blackish brown shaft-stripes, median coverts brown with gray or white spots and bars, larger coverts dusky gray with a broad subterminal blackish band and another near the base; primaries outside blackish brown; secondaries gray, with blackish cross-bands, beneath all are grayish or whitish with dark bands; upper tail-coverts white, sometimes with rufous-brown drops or bands; tail gray with dark brown cross-bands; lower parts white, with dark brown shaft-stripes, broad on the throat and breast, narrower and sometimes disappearing on the abdomen.

"Young birds are more uniform brown above than the adult female, and have no gray on the wings or tail, which are brown with darker bands; the ruff is ill-marked at the sides, but there is a large white brown-streaked nuchal patch and another patch of buff-edged brown feathers on the throat; the lower parts generally are rufous-brown, faintly streaked darker.

"For a long time it was supposed that both sexes in this bird were pied and similar, but the true facts were gradually traced out by Mr. Hume. Still one undoubted case is recorded by Mr. Cripps in which a female assumed the pied livery of the adult male, and other probable cases are indicated by the measurements of pied specimens. Length of male, 432; tail, 216; wing, 349; tarsus, 76; length of female, 470; tail, 228; wing, 368; tarsus, 81; bill from gape, 30." (Blanford.)

The adult male of the pied marsh hawk is a very beautiful and graceful bird; the female and young are dull brown and unattractive. This species is fairly abundant in the lowlands where it frequents open country.

175. CIRCUS ÆRUGINOSUS (Linnæus).

EUROPEAN MARSH HAWK.

Falco æruginosus Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 91. Circus æruginosus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874), 1, 69; Hand-List (1899), 1, 246; Blanford, Fauna Brit. India Bds. (1895), 3, 387; Grant, Ibis (1895), 438; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 239; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 41.

Cagayan Sulu (Mearns); Luzon (Whitehead); Mindoro (Everett). Temperate Europe and Siberia; in winter to northern Africa, Indian Peninsula, and China.

"Adult male.--Head, neck, and breast buff or pale rufous, with dark brown shaft-stripes, broader on the breast; back and most of the wing-coverts dark brown; scapulars still darker, sometimes gray toward the base; smallest coverts along the forearm whitish, with dark brown shafts; outer greater coverts, primary-coverts, and all quills except first six primaries dark silvery gray, remaining coverts and very often the tertiaries dark brown; first six primaries black with the basal portion white; upper tail-coverts white with rufous and brown mixed in various ways; tail gray above, isabelline below; abdomen and lower tail-coverts ferruginous brown, more or less striped darker.

"Females are dark brown except the crown, nape, chin, and more or less of the throat, which are buff with brown stripes. There is sometimes a patch of buff on the breast, the wing-coverts and back have buff edges, and the upper tail-coverts are rufous.

"The young of both sexes resemble the female, except that the buff on the head is sometimes unstreaked and more limited in extent, being confined in some cases to a nuchal patch or even wanting altogether.

"'Bill black; cere and base of bill greenish yellow; iris yellow, brownish yellow in females and young; legs and feet rich yellow.' (Hume.)

"Length of males, 533; tail, 241; wing, 406; tarsus, 86; length of females, 572; tail, 248; wing, 419; tarsus, 89." (Blanford.)

The measurements given by Sharpe are as follows: "Male, length, 571; culmen, 39; wing, 406; tail, 254; tarsus, 86. Female, length, 584; wing, 432; tail, 279; tarsus, 96."

The young of Circus spilonotus and C. æruginosus are similar in plumage and as the size is also nearly the same it is a matter of some difficulty to distinguish between them. Sharpe identified as C. æruginosus a young female collected in the Philippines by Cuming, but he finally referred it to C. spilonotus. Whitehead obtained an immature male in northern Luzon which according to Grant "is undoubtedly referable to the present species [æruginosus]." Concerning the specimen from Calayan Sulu, collected by Mearns, Dr. Chas. W. Richmond writes that "it may prove to be spilonotus." Hartert makes no comment on the specimen collected by Everett in Mindoro.

Some of the numerous brown marsh hawks in the Bureau of Science collection may be of this species but they can not be determined at present.