ASTUR TACHIRO. 21 
London list: but Mr. Ayres has procured it in Natal, whence we 
have seen many specimens. Mr. Ortlepp writes that it is by no 
means rare in the woods skirting the Orange River, and easy of ap- 
proach—feeding on small birds, beetles, &c. We believe it is gene- 
rally distributed over all the forest country, being essentially a tree- 
loving species. It seems to be much more plentiful in the eastern 
districts of South Africa, for it is pronounced to be “ common all 
along the Shiré Valley,” by Dr. Kirk, but Andersson states that it 
is very rare in Damara Land. One specimen has been procured by 
Senor Anchieta at Biballa in Mossamedes, which Professor Barbaza 
du Bocage refers to A. zonarius, but which the editor fancies must 
be the true A. tachiro, as the other species (or subspecies, for it is 
only a brighter and darker form of the South African bird) has never 
been known to oceur below Gaboon. 
An adult female in Norwich Museum, from the Zambesi, is re- 
markably pale and very large. Vide Ibis, 1868, p. 144. 
Mr. Ayres says that this species lives entirely in the bush, es- 
pecially frequenting the neighbourhood of wooded streams, and feeds 
on small birds, but he also met with remains of a frog in one specimen 
and of limpets in another. Le Vaillant, who first figured the young 
bird under the name of Le Tachiro, describes its eggs as white, 
blotched with red and three in number. His testimony on this 
point must be taken for what it is worth. 
Adult.—Above uniform ashy-brown; throat whitish, finely rayed 
transversely with brown; anterior part of neck, breast, and belly dull 
white, regularly rayed with transverse brown, or pale rufous bars ; 
‘vent and under tail-coverts white, with some fine transverse brown 
lines; wing-feathers light brown, banded with dark brown, inner 
vanes marked with white towards the quills. Tail long, beneath ash- 
white, with transverse brown bands; above brown, with darker 
bands; tips white; iris light yellow in a female assuming adult 
dress. (Ayres). Length, 15’’; wing, 8’’ 3’; tail, 73’’. 
Young.—Above brown, each feather margined with rufous, and 
usually with white at the base; beneath pale isabella colour, with 
numerous large oval dark-brown blotches ; thighs transversely barred. 
Legs yellow. Ivis dark greenish brown. (Ayres.) 
Fig. Levaill. Ois. d’Afr. pl. 24 (juv.). Rupp. Neue Wirb. taf. 
18 (ad.) 
