. The sportsman's British bird book . nner webs of all the primary quills. To these leading characteristics it may be added that in the cock the head and throat are creamy white streaked with umber ; the upper-parts chocolate-brown, except for the wings (which have buffish-white lesser coverts, bluish-grey greater coverts and outer i88 FALCOX AND EAGLE GROUP secondaries, chocolate-red inner secondaries, and dusky primaries);the tail, as already stated, t^rey ; under-parts buff, striped with brownon the breast, and with chestnut on the abdomen ; and the legsfeathered far down. In the hen the co
. The sportsman's British bird book . nner webs of all the primary quills. To these leading characteristics it may be added that in the cock the head and throat are creamy white streaked with umber ; the upper-parts chocolate-brown, except for the wings (which have buffish-white lesser coverts, bluish-grey greater coverts and outer i88 FALCOX AND EAGLE GROUP secondaries, chocolate-red inner secondaries, and dusky primaries);the tail, as already stated, t^rey ; under-parts buff, striped with brownon the breast, and with chestnut on the abdomen ; and the legsfeathered far down. In the hen the colour is brown above andchocolate-brown below, the head being, however, buff streaked withbrown, and the lesser wing-covcrts at the bend of the wing creamywhite. Young birds, in addition to the features already mentioned,are characterised by the uniformly chocolate breast, except for a buffpatch in the centre, and the absence of grey on the wing-coverts andsecondary quills. Such is the general type of colouring; it should, however, be. MAKSII-IIAKUIKK (MALE). mentioned that, in addition to the changes dependent upon age, themarsh-harrier, like the buzzard, is liable to a considerable amount ofindividual variation in the matter of the colour of the this may be accounted for by the species being in a state of unstable equilibrium in this respect ; for there can be little doubtthat in this harrier we have an instance of the first stage towards thedevelopment of a completely grey plumage in both sexes, that colouroccurring only on the tail and wings of the adult males. Nothingwould be more likely, on the assumption that grey is an advantage,than that there should be individual variation in regard to its degreeof development. The distribution of the marsh-harrier is practically the same asthat of the preceding species, extending as far east as Turkestan and KITE 389 western Siberia, and including in winter India (where this bird occa-sionally sta)s to breed) and the
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