30 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



shoulders and back ; mottled on the breast. Length, 16^' ; 

 wing, 10" ; tail, 8". The male is smaller, being about 13" in 

 length. 



Found generally, though sparingly, throughout the colony. Two 

 eggs, said to be those of the present species, were forwarded to me from 

 Tulbagh: they are of a dirty white colour, irregularly and obscurely 

 blotched here and there with pale blood-coloured marks : axis, 1" 9"' ; 

 diam., 1"5"'. 



I have shot this species in the act of hovering like a kestrel, and as it 

 preys much on birds and small quadrupeds, pnfcicularly field-mice 

 (mus pumila), I do not so much wonder at this habit. At other times 

 I have seen it glance like lightning through a copse, and whip off a 

 bird from a branch in passing. It will also eat coleoptera and white- 

 ants. I saw a pair constructing a nest of sticks in a thick fir-tree. It 

 was placed over an horizontal forked branch, cleverly supported by 

 two large sticks across the foundation, I was too early for the eggs. 



Genus MELIERAX, Gray. 

 Bill moderate, gradually arched to the tip, broad at the 

 base, and with the sides compressed towards the tip, the cere 

 covering half of the bill, and the sides of the gape naked ; 

 the nostrils placed in the cere, large, and rather oval. Wings 

 long, with the third, fourth, and fifth quills nearly equal and 

 longest. Tail long and ample. Tarsi nearly twice the length 

 of the middle toe, and covered in front with transverse scales. 

 Toes rather short, with the lateral ones unequal ; the outer 

 toe shorter and weaker ; the hind toe as long as the inner, 

 and equally strong. 



44. MelieraX Gabar. ■' Acdpiter Gahar, Daud. ; 



A. Erythrorhynchus, Swain,, B, of W. Af, Vol, 1, p. 



121 ; Class, of Birds, Vol. 2, p, 215 ; Le Gabar, Le 



Vail,, PL 33. 

 All the upper parts and head brownish-grey, darker on the 

 mantle and occiput. Throat and breast blue-grey ; belly 

 white, barred with grey. Large wing-feathers brown, the 

 centre ones tipped with white. Upper and under tail-coverts 

 white. Upper tail-feathers clear-brown, barred with dark- 

 brown ; lower feathers barred, black and white. Cere and 

 legs red. Iris, according to Mr. Atmore, bright crimson in 

 adult, yellow in young bird. Length, 14" ; wing, 8" ; tail, 7" 61", 

 Le Vaillant found one white egg, and three young birds in a nest, in 

 a mimosa tree, built of flexible twigs and thorns, lined with feathers. 

 General in the colony, though not near Cape Town, frequenting the 

 wooded banks of rivers and kloofs in mountains, preying on small 

 birds and reptiles. Mr. Atmore states that they whistle very much, 

 and better than M. Mvsicus. 



