SPARROW-OWL—SPHENISCOMORPHA 899 
with several others of greater size, inhabits South Africa. Mada- 
gascar and its neighbouring islands have three or four species sufli- 
ciently distinct, and India has 4. badius. A good many more forms 
are found in South-eastern Asia, in the Indo-Malay Archipelago, 
and in Australia three or four species, of which 4. cirrhocephalus 
most nearly represents the Sparrow-Hawk of Europe and Northern 
Asia, while A. radiatus and A. approximans shew some affinity to 
the Gos-HAwKk (p. 377) with which they are often classed. The 
differences between all the forms above named and the much larger 
number here unnamed are such as can be only appreciated by the 
specialist, and could not possibly be pointed out within the limits of 
this work. It may be observed in conclusion that the so-called 
“ Sparrow-Hawk” of New Zealand (QUAIL-HAWK, p. 757) does not 
belong to this group of Falconidx, and that of America is an un- 
doubted KESTREL (p. 477). 
SPARROW-OWL, a name applied by some writers to Carine 
noctua, though more suited to Glaucidium passerinum, and in North 
America to Nyctala richardsont. 
SPECULUM (Germ. Spiegel, Fr. miroir), a long-established name 
for any patch of feathers on the wing of a bird differing remark- 
ably in colour from those that are near them, and especially applied 
to the lustrous patch, called the “beauty spot” by some writers 
and even now by gunners, formed by the cubital remiges in the 
freshwater-DUCKS (Anatinz). 
SPEICHT (Hollyband, Dict. Fr. and Engl. sub. voc. “ Pie”), 
SPEIGHT or corruptly SPITE, generally with the prefix “ Wood” 
(Germ. Specht, Fr. Epeiche) names of a WOODPECKER, generally 
Gecinus viridis, but sometimes Dryocopus major. 
SPEKVRETER (Fat-eater), a bird so called in South Africa as 
it is supposed to pick the grease from the waggon-wheels (Layard, 
B. S. Afr. p. 108), a species of Saaicola (WHEATEAR), for a long 
while thought to be the Sylvia sperata of Latham, which is founded 
on the ‘“ Traquet du cap de Bonne-espérance” of Buffon (H. NV. Cis. v. 
p. 233), but his description so ill accords with the former that 
Messrs. Blanford and Dresser (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1874, p. 237) 
referred it to the Erythropygia galton of Strickland (Contr. Orn. 
1852, p. 147), shewing that it cannot be the Luticilla familiaris 
of Stephens, as some authors had alleged, and it now stands as 
S. galtons. 
SPENCY, a local name for the Storm-PETREL (cf, p. 709). 
SPERVEL (from the Dutch) the name in South Africa for a 
FALCON, probably Falco minor (Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 19). 
SPHENISCOMORPH, according to Prof. Huxley’s arrange- 
