390 A Description of the Birds 
dusky, hoary blue, with shades of brown; part of edges of 
inner vanes white; tips of feathers white or reddish tawny ; 
legs and toes yellow ; claws black. 
This bird is found throughout the whole of South Africa ; 
but is particularly abundant along the western coast, and in 
the country about the Twenty-four Rivers, and the Piquet- 
berg. It frequently resorts to the habitations of the farmers, 
and proves highly destructive to their poultry. It builds its 
nest in the clefts of trees; lines it inside with down and 
feathers, and lays from four to five white eggs. 
GENUS. MILVUS. 
Rostrum mediocre, debile su- Bill moderately long, weak, 
perne subangulare. Nares ob- || andsubangularabove. Nostrils 
lique elliptice.  Tarsi breves. || oblique, elliptical. Tarsi short. 
Acrotarsia scutellata. Ale | Acrotarsia scutellate. Wings 
longissime. Remex Atius. lon- | very long. Fourth quill the 
gissimus ; cauda furcata. (| longest. Tail forked. 
Mitvus parasiticus. Kuikenduif of the Colonists. 
Le parasite, Le Vaillant Ois d’ Afrique, tom. 1, pl. 22. 
M. capite colloque cinereo-fuscis, nigro lineatis; dorso et 
humeris fuscis ; mento et gutture longitudinaliter striatis subalbo 
et nigro; pectore et abdomine subferrugineis striis nigris varie- 
gatis. 
Male.—Bill and cere yellow; eyes dark brown; head and 
neck pale tawny, with each feather marked in the centre by 
a longitudinal black or blackish brown streak which includes 
the shaft; imterscapulars, back, tail coverts, and shoulders 
brown, each feather tipt with a lighter tint ; chin and throat 
streaked longitudinally with brown and dirty white; breast 
and belly dirty dull rufous, with a narrow stripe of black 
along the centre of each feather; under tail coverts and 
thighs rufous ; primary and secondary wing coverts blackish 
brown, with light tips. Primary wing feather black, mottled 
slightly with white on inner vanes towards quills ; secondaries 
brown, with the inner vanes crossed by indistinct dusky 
bands, outer vanes sometimes of as dusky a hue as the bands. 
Tail slightly forked, reddish brown, with eight or nine narrow 
blackish transverse bands, and the tips of all the feathers 
reddish white : the bands are most distinct on the inner vanes, 
and below, on both, they are much more evident than above, 
being there black andnearly pure white; legs and toes yellow; 
claws black. Length from bill to base of tail eleven inches 
and a half; length of latter eight and a half. 
Female.—With the exception of the rufous color being less 
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