RAPTORES. 41 



tail bufFy brown ; throat buff, deepening into the rich rust- 

 red of the under surface of the shoulder and the whole of the 

 under surface ; all the feathers of the under siu-face with a 

 narrow stripe of black down the centre ; thighs and under 

 tail-coverts rust-red without stripes. 



The female has the striae of the under surface broader and 

 more conspicuous. 



Sp. 17. ASTUR APPROXIMANS, Vigors and Horsjield. 

 Australian Goshawk. 



Falco radiatus, Temm. PI. Col. 123, young. 



Astur radiatus, Vig. and Hovsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p, 181, young 



male. 

 Astur fasciatus, Id. ib., adult male and female. 

 Astur approximans, Id. ib., young female. — Gould in Syn. Birds of 



Australia, part iii. 

 Bilbil, Aborigines of New South Wales. 

 Nisus [Urospiza) radiatus, Kaup, Mus. Senckenb., 1845, p. 259. 



( ) approximans, Kaup, Isis, 1847, p. 182. 



Accipitur approximans. List of Birds in Brit. Mus. Coll., part i, 2nd edit. 



p. 74. 



Astur approximans, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. i. pi. 17. 



Among the whole of the Australian Falconidcs there is no 

 species the scientific appellation of which is involved in so 

 much confusion as that of the present bird. This has arisen 

 from two causes, — first, from its having been erroneously 

 considered to be identical with the Falco radiatus of Latham, 

 from which it is entirely distinct ; and secondly, from the 

 difference which exists between the plumage of the adult and 

 young being so great as to have led to a multiplication of 

 specific names. Seven specimens of this Hawk formed part 

 of the collection of the Linnean Society, now dispersed, and 

 were those from which Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield took 

 their descriptions of Astur radiatus, A. fasciatus, and A. 

 approximans : from the careful examination I made of these 



