54 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
Fam, FALCONIDZ. 
47. Baza Verreavuxu. Verreaux’s Cuckoo-Falcon. 
(Praze I.) 
Avicida verreauxii, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 24 (1867). 
The South African species of Baza is distinct from B. cuculoides 
of Western Africa and may be recognised by its lighter coloration, 
and paler grey breast, but more especially by the colour of the under 
wing-coverts which are uniform rufous in the West African bird. 
It is only known from the eastern parts of South Africa, not 
having at present been obtained out of Natal. Here, Mr. Ayres 
says, “it frequents the dense bush and is extremely shy.” Mr. 
Harford sent a fine female from Natal and writes as follows: ‘ They 
are very fond of settling on the ground. This specimen was shot in 
the act of settling on an ant-hill. This morning I had the luck to 
kill a pair, both of them females, at a right and left shot. Three of 
them have been in the habit of passing below the house for the last 
two weeks. Out of a specimen I killed the other day I took several 
legs and wings of grasshoppers and mantide.” Mr. Ayres likewise 
found in the stomach of one of these Hawks remains of a green 
Mantis, of locusts, and of a chameleon. 
The figures given in the accompanying plate represent an adult 
and young bird in the British Museum, and the following descrip- 
tions are taken from the “ Catalogue of Birds” (Vol. 1, p. 355):— 
Adult male. — Above dark ashy grey, somewhat shaded with 
brown, crown and occipital crest dark ashy; quills brown, tipped 
with whitish, externally shaded with ashy grey; under surface of 
wing white for the basal, and shading into greyish white for the 
apical half; primaries crossed by a few bars of brown above and 
below, more indistinct on the inner ones, the secondaries with a 
broad subterminal bar of dark brown; upper tail-coverts ashy grey 
at base, brown at tip, appearing slightly banded; tail slaty grey 
above, conspicuously tipped with white, crossed by four bars of 
black, the subterminal one very broad, under surface whitish, the 
basal bars more indistinct and represented on the outer feathers by 
a black patch on the outer web, extending a little across to the 
inner one; sides of the face, throat, and chest clear grey ; breast 
pure white, banded with pale rufous brown, a little broader on the 
