288 FALCONID^ POLIOHIERAX 



light and darker brown ; below, white throughout, spotted with 

 drop- shaped ovals of a rufous brown ; iris very light brown. 



Distribution. — The Cuckoo Falcon is found only in the wooded 

 districts of south and east Africa, extending from the George and 

 Knysna districts of the Colony eastwards through Natal to the 

 Zambesi. Beyond our limits it is met with in east Africa as far 

 north as Mombasa and south Gallaland, including Nyasaland and 

 Angola. 



Fig. 92. — Baza vcrrcauxi. x \h - - 



The following are South x^frican localities : Cape Colony — 

 George (Atmore), Knysna (Marais), East London (Wood in S. A. 

 Mus.), Port St. Johns (Shortridge) ; Natal— Near Durban, common 

 (Shelley), St. Lucia Lake in Zululand (Woodward) ; Transvaal 

 (Gurney) ; Ehodesia— Near Salisbury (Marshall). 



Habits. — Little has been written on the habits of this Hawk ; it 

 frequents dense bush and is very shy ; it feeds chiefly on mantids, 

 locusts, and other insects, but occasionally on lizards, such as 

 chameleons ; the Woodwards state that it even occasionally kills 

 fowls. 



Genus IV. POLIOHIERAX. 



Poliohierax, Kanj), Isis, 1847, p. 47 P. semitorquatus. 



Bill very small with a single strongly-marked tooth ; nostrils 

 oval without overhanging membrane or central tubercle ; wings 

 moderate, the first primary the longest ; tail rounded ; tarsus loug, 



