Avifauna of New Caledonia. 499 



and blue ; tarsi and feet yellow ; iris crimson'^ ! ? , Jahoue, 

 length 13", wing 9" 6'", tail 7" 6'", tarse 2" 10"', bill 1" ; bill, 

 point of upper mandible grey, base and whole of lower 

 French blue ; legs and feet yellow ochre ; iris cadmium 

 yellow. 



Three eggs were brought to us, with a female bird, said to 

 have been killed off the nest, in the middle of November 

 1880. They were shaped like those of the European Spar- 

 row-hawk. Axis 1" 7j"', diam 1" 4"'. Colour dull white, 

 smirched and blotched with indistinct pale dry-blood-coloured 

 markings, generally distributed. 



The young of this species is dark grey-brown above, the 

 feathers being edged with fulvous ; below it is a pale buff, 

 almost wliite, profusely blotched on the breast, and barred on 

 the belly and flanks with the same dark grey-brown of the 

 back. Bill bluish, tip black. Legs and feet yelloAv. 



Young birds may always be distinguished from the young 

 of U. approximans in wanting the transversely rufous-barred 

 legs and general rufous tint of the latter. 



5. Urospizias approximans (Vig. & Horsf.). 



This is the commonest of our Raptores, being found all over 

 the island, and extending to the Loyalties. It is, however, not 

 often obtained in the full adult barred plumage; and but 

 very few of such specimens have reached our hands. A 

 fair average specimen measures — length 18", wing 11" 3"', 

 tail 10", tarse 3". Bill and cere grey throughout; legs 

 greenish ; iris Indian yellow. We (E. L. L.) shot a young 

 bird still showing the nesting-down on the 23rd August, 

 1879, at Mar Point. Like the preceding, it is at this age 

 profusely blotched on the breast and barred on the belly and 

 flanks ; but there is a general rufous tinge over the whole 

 bird, which increases with age, and at once separates it. 

 Specimens from the Loyalty Islands exhibit more of this tint 

 than those from the larger island of New Caledonia, and, we 



* This is the second instance in which we have found one with a crim- 

 son iris ; and we have just shot a pair, male and female, here (Moindou) 

 in which the iris was almost that colour. Cf. Ibis, 1880, p. 336. 



