21. MELIERAX. 87- 



b'". Secondaries ashy grey, tipped with white . . poUopterus, p. 88. 

 b". Upper tail-coverts white, barred with slaty 



grev polyzonas p. 88. 



U. Middle tail-feathers barred (jahar, p. 89. 



6. Under sui-face entirely black '".'/^''j P- 91- 



1. Melierax canoms. 



Falco canorus, Rislach, in Thioih. Diss. Ac. iii. p. '2i'>i (1799). 



Le Faucon chanteur, Levaill. Ois. cVAfr. i. p. 117,- pi. 27 (179'Jj; 



Sundev. Crit. p. 26 (1857). 

 Falco miisicus, Daad. Traite, ii. p. 1 16 (1800 ). 

 Chanting Falcon, Lath. Gen. Si/n. Suppl. ii. p. 40 (1802). 

 Nisus musicus, Uuv. Regne, An. i. p. -321 (1817). 

 Sparvius musicus, Vieill. N. Diet. (THist. Xat. x. p. 3 38 (1817). 

 lerax musicus, Cranch, App. Tackey E.ip. Congo, p. 407 (1818j. 

 Accipiter musicus, Vig. Zoul. Joitrn. i. p. 3-38 (1824). 

 Nisus canorus, Less. Traite, p. 62 (1831). 

 Astur musicus, Sw. Classif. B. ii. p. 215 (1837) ; Schl. Mus. P.-B. 



Astures, p. 20 (18()2). 

 Melierax musicus, Gray, List Gen. B. p. o (1840) ; Bp. Comp. i. 

 • p. 34 (1850); Strickl. Orn. Syn. p. 142 (18-55); Grill, Zool. 



Anteckn. p. 49 (1858) ; Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 31 (1867) ; Gray, 



Hand-l. B. i. p. 36 (1869) ; Anderss. B. Dam. Ld. p. 26 (1872). 

 Melierax cantans, Katip, Isis, 1847, p. 192. 

 Melierax canorus, Finsch u. Hartl. Vog. Ostafr. p. 92 (1870), 



Nestling. Covered with dusky down, the head ornamented with 

 extraordinarily long and erect filamentous down. 



Young. Above brown, the feathers very faintly edged with paler 

 brown, the median and greater wing-coverts paler brown than the 

 back ; quiUs dark brown, whitish at the base and for a considerable 

 extent, slightly freckled with brown on the white interspaces, and 

 indistinctly barred with dark brown ; upper tail-coverts and tail 

 white, mottled with brown ; tail brown, tipped with paler and in- 

 distinctly barred across with blackish brown, under surface paler 

 and more ashy white, the dark bars contrasting more plainly ; 

 hinder part and sides of neck as well as the throat slightly varied 

 with white, giving somewhat of a striped appearance ; chest pale 

 brown, mottled with dark brown centres to the feathers ; rest of 

 under surface dull rufous, barred indistinctly with greyish brown 

 and mottled with white, the spots being more distinct and ocellated 

 on the flanks ; under wing-coverts pale rufous, varied with white, 

 the lower ones barred across with ashy grey ; iiis dark brown. 



Adult. Above bluish ash-colour, darker on the head and sides of 

 the face ; the wing-coverts rather lighter, the greater ones whitish, 

 more or less freckled or vermiculuted with ashy grey ; primaries 

 black, inclining to ashy grey on the outer web ; the secondaries 

 white, more or less minutely freckled with ashy grey ; the inner 

 secondaries entirely grey, some of them washed with brown ; upper 

 tail-coverts and base of tail white, the latter somewhat freckled 

 with ashy grey ; taU greyish black above with a conspicuous white 

 tip, the outer feather almost entirely white with remains of blackish 

 bars, more especially on the outer web, the next feather white with 



