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.