SPARRO W- WL—SPHENlSCOMORPHyE 899 



with several others of greater size, inhabits South Africa. Mada- 

 gascar and its neighbouring islands have three or four species suffi- 

 ciently distinct, and India has A. badius. A good many more forms 

 are found in South-eastern Asia, in the Indo-Malay Archipelago, 

 and in Australia three or foiu" species, of which A. cirrhocephaliis 

 most nearly represents the Sparrow-Hawk of Europe and Northern 

 Asia, while A. radiatus and A. approximans shew some affinity to 

 the Gos-Hawk (p. 377) Avith which they are often classed. The 

 differences between all the forms above named and the much larger 

 number here unnamed are such as can be only appreciated by the 

 specialist, and could not possibly be pointed out within the limits of 

 this work. It may be observed in conclusion that the so-called 

 *' Sparrow-Hawk " of New Zealand (Quail-Hawk, p. 757) does not 

 belong to this group of Falconidse, and that of America is an un- 

 doubted Kestrel (p. 477). 



SPARROW-OWL, a name applied by some writers to Garine 

 nodua, though more suited to Glaucidium passerinum, and in North 

 America to Nydala richardsoni. 



SPECULUM (Germ. Spiegel, Fr. miroir), a long-established name 

 for any patch of feathers on the wing of a bird differing remark- 

 ably in colour from those that are near them, and especially applied 

 to the lustrous patch, called the " beauty spot " by some Avriters 

 and even now by gunners, formed by the cubital remiges in the 

 freshwater-DucKS {AnatiriEe). 



SPEIGHT (Hollyband, Did. Fr. and Engl. sub. voc. " Pie "), 

 SPEIGHT or corruptly SPITE, generally with the prefix "Wood" 

 (Germ. Specht, Fr. Epeiche) names of a WOODPECKER, generally 

 Gecinus viridis, but sometimes Dryocopus major. 



SPEKVRETER (Fat-eater), a bird so called in South Africa as 

 it is supposed to pick the grease from the waggon-wheels (Layard, 

 B. S. Afr. p. 108), a species of Saxicola (Wheatear), for. a long 

 while thought to be the Sylvia sperata of Latham, which is founded 

 on the " Traquet du cap de Bonne-espdrance" of Buffon (H. N. Ois. v. 

 p. 233), but his description so ill accords with the former that 

 Messrs. Blanford and Dresser (Froc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 237) 

 referred it to the Erythropygia galtoni of Strickland (Contr. Orn. 

 1852, p. 147), shewing that it cannot be the Butidlla familiaris 

 of Stephens, as some authors had alleged, and it now stands as 

 S. galtoni. 



SPENCY, a local name for the Storm-PETREL (cf. p. 709). 



SPERVEL (from the Dutch) the name in South Africa for a 

 Falcon, probably Falco minor (Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 19). 



SPHENISCOMORPHiE, according to Prof. Huxley's arrange- 



