156 FALCONIFORMES CHAP. 
Micrastur, a genus found in Central and northern South 
America, somewhat resembles Accipiter, being brown or blackish 
above, relieved by rufous or grey and white, and white or reddish 
below with or without cross-bars. Geranospizias ranges further 
south, G. caerulescens, which is slaty-blue, with a few white bands 
beneath, reaching South Brazil and Bolivia, while the Central 
American G. niger is nearly uniform black. The thighs are 
closely feathered, and the tibio-tarsal joint is said to act doubly. 
Five species of Melierax or “Singing Hawk,” reside in the 
Ethiopian Region, especially in the south, where JZ canorus is 
plentiful. This form is ash-coloured with black primaries, black 
and white tail, and white belly with greyish bars. The habits 
ave bold, the flight is rapid, the food consists of small mammals, 
birds, reptiles, and locusts. The haunts are in rocky places or 
bush country; the nest of sticks, lined with wool and feathers, 
is placed in a tree, and contains from three to five whitish eggs. 
The mellow whistling or piping song is heard chiefly in the 
morning and evening, the wide-spread African Asturinula mono- 
grammica alone of the Family vying with it in sweetness. 
Astur comprises forty or more members, several of which have 
exact counterparts in the genus Accipiter.' The more robust build, 
shorter legs, and stouter toes serve as distinctions ; but it must be 
noted that short wings, long legs, and bill without a notch mark 
all Accipitrine as opposed to Falconine forms. The descriptions 
below will be sufficient to shew the coloration, as the species, except 
A. novae hollandiae, are very similar. Inhabitants of the wood- 
land and river-side, they are nearly cosmopolitan, though absent 
in parts of the Neotropical Region and in New Zealand; while 
several islands have peculiar races. A. palumbarius, the Goshawk, 
called of old the “Gentle Falcon,” is now seldom observed in 
Britain, though once it nested in Scotland; it ranges throughout 
Europe and Asia to Morocco, and thence to the Himalayas and 
Japan, or slightly further south in winter. It is ashy-brown 
above, with four dark bands on the white-tipped tail, and is closely 
barred with brown and white below. Daring and rapacious, with 
marvellous power of steerage, it follows the abruptest turns of its 
victims with the greatest ease, gliding after them in a low, per- 
sistent style, termed by falconers “raking.” The food consists of 
small mammals and birds, but 4. badius and A. tachiro will eat 
1J. H. Gurney, Jbis, 1875, p. 468. 
