Upper plumage (male) bluish ash, (female) reddish brown: third primary much longer than the others: secondaries with three black transverse bars: wings reaching to the extremity of the tail.

Falco cineraceus, Mont, in Linn. Trans, vol. ix. p. 188. Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. 1. p. 76. Ash-coloured Harrier, Selb. Must. vol. 1. p. 70. pi. 11. Ash-coloured Falcon, Mont. Orn. Diet, and Supp. vrith Jig, Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. 1. p. 37.

Dimensions

Entire length seventeen inches: length of the hill (from the forehead) ten lines, (from the gape) eleven lines and a half; of the tarsus two inches three lines; of the tail eight inches two lines; from the carpus to the end of the wing thirteen inches nine lines. Female.

Description

(Adult male). Head, throat, breast, and all the upper parts of the body, deep bluish ash: belly, sides, and thighs, white, with longitudinal rust-coloured streaks: primaries black; secondaries ash-gray above, paler beneath, with three transverse dusky bars, one of which is visible externally: under wing-coverts barred with reddish brown: two middle tail-feathers brownish gray; the rest cinereous, their inner webs barred with reddish brown: bill bluish black: irides and feet yellow. (Adult female). Crown of the head reddish brown, with dusky spots: nape yellowish red, sometimes approaching to white: above and below the eye a pale fascia: upper parts of the body deep brown, the feathers with reddish edges: lower part of the rump, and tail-coverts, white, streaked with pale orange-brown: all the under parts bright ferruginous, with the shafts of the feathers somewhat darker, appearing like fine slender streaks: tail with the two middle feathers of an uniform brown; the rest with brown and ferruginous bars. (Young of the year). Upper plumage much resembling that of the adult female: under parts of an uniform rust-red colour, without any spots or streaks: irides brown. (Egg). White: long. diam. one inch seven lines; trans, diam. one inch four lines.

First discovered by Montagu in Devonshire: has since been occasionally met with in the North of England, and likewise in the fens of Cambridgeshire. Nest placed on the ground; often amongst furze: the eggs, which are generally four in number, are hatched about the second week in June.