ASTUB. 399 



rectrices with 4 or 5 broadisli dark bars, the last subterminal ; 

 sides of head and neck paler and more rufescent than crown ; 

 chin and throat buff or white, with a more or less distinct 

 median grey stripe, sometimes wanting; breast rufous, varying 

 from rusty to vinous red, with numerous narrow white bars, 

 varying in regularity and distinctness, but never wanting; the 

 red gradually fades on the abdomen, and the vent, under tail- 

 coverts, and thigh-coverts are white or buff ; wing-lining buff. 



Females are browner and less grey above than old males, and 

 the rufous of the lower surface is deeper and less rusty red, but 

 the pure grey upper plumage and the rusty red loM^er surface are, 

 according to Jerdon, not assumed before the 4th or 5th year. 



Young birds are brown above, the feathers at first with rufous 

 edges, their white bars conspicuous on the head and nape ; all the 

 tail-feathers are barred, the bars on the outer feathers narrower 

 and rather more numerous ; the lower parts are white, with large 

 elongate brown spots, largest on the breast, and there is generally 

 a median brown stripe on the throat. 



Bill bluish dusky at the tip ; cere bright yellow ; irides yellow, 

 becoming deep orange in old birds ; legs and feet yellow. 



Length of females about 14 ; tail 7 : wing 8-25 ; tarsus 2 ; bill 

 from gape O'S : in males the length is about 12-5; wing 7. 

 Ceylon and Southern birds are a little smaller, Burmese and Sind 

 birds larger. 



Bistributmi. Eesident throughout India, Burma, and Ceylon, 

 ascending the hills of the Indian Peninsula to their summits, and 

 breeding on the Himalayas up to about 5000 feet. This Hawk 

 ranges westwards into Southern Persia, north (if A. cenchroides be 

 the same) into Central Asia, and eastwards to Siam, Cambodia, 

 and Southern China. At Gilgit, according to Scully, the Shikra 

 is migratory, passing northwards in April, and southwards in 

 September. 



The Burmese Shikra is a well-marked race, and has been 

 distinguished as A. poUopsis. It is slightly larger on an average, 

 and the male is paler grey above, without any rufescent collar, 

 with the sides of the head greyer, and the median gular stripe 

 faint or wanting. The bars on the lower plumage of adult males 

 too are deeper rufous and somewhat broader. But all these 

 peculiarities are to be found in some Southern and Western Indian 

 birds, though not often in the same individual. A large pale 

 form from Central Asia, found also in the Punjab, Sind, and 

 Baluchistan, has been called A. cenchroides by Severtzoff. I at one 

 time mistook some Quetta skins collected by Sir O. B. St. John, 

 and belonging to this race, for A. hrevipes, Sev., a different species. 

 Habits, Sfc. The Shikra is very common and well known in 

 India, and, except in thick forest or in desert, may be met with 

 all over the country. Its general food, as Jerdon says, appears 

 to be lizards, but it frequently seizes small birds, rats, or mice, and 

 sometimes does not disdain a large grasshopper. It has been 

 seen feeding on flying termites or white ants. Its call-note is 



