1 20 A Deacr/ptwH of the Birds, SfC 



light bluish gray; back and scapulars dark slate color; upper 

 tail coverts white; shoulders silvery gray, finely mottled with 

 black ; false wing feathers and primary wing coverts deep 

 hoary, inclined to grayish black ; secondary coverts white, 

 mottled with narrow tortuous blackish lines ; primary wing 

 feathers brownish black, variegated on inner vanes towards 

 (mills with lines or streaks of white ; secondaries pure white, 

 here ,and there dotted or finely streaked with black ; belly, 

 thighs, and under tail coverts finely banded black and white. 

 Tail slight rounded, the two centre feathers blackish gray, 

 and the rest blackish, or blackish gray and white in different 

 proportions, the latter particularly abundant in the two outer- 

 most ones of each side, and all, with the exception of the two 

 middle ones, are broadly tipt with white. Tarsi and toes 

 vermillion red ; claws black. Length from bill to base of 

 tail ten inches ; length of latter the same. 



Female. — Colors the same as those of the male, and in point 

 of size is but little superior to it. 



Young. — Bill blackish, with a little of the base of each 

 mandible yellow ; cere greenish yellow ; eyes grayish yellow, 

 inclined to pure yellow; head, neck, and back brown, the 

 feathers of the two former white towards quills, whereby the 

 neck in particular, at times, appears much marked with the 

 latter color ; tail coverts white, with a triangular brown spot 

 near the tip of each ; shoulders brown, with the feathers 

 edged and tipt with reddish white ; belly, thighs, and under 

 tail coverts marked with alternate broad irregular brown and 

 white bands ; primary wing coverts brown, tipt with white : 

 primary wing feathers reddish brown, banded with black, and 

 the outer vanes tinted with gray ; secondaries hluish gray, 

 banded with black, and tipt with white ; tail with reddish 

 gray and blackish brown transverse bands ; the former four in 

 number; legs and toes somewhat flesh colored; claws black. 

 This Hawk js very generally distributed throughout the 

 " whole Of South Africa, and is particularly abundant along the 

 flats adjoining the Avestern coast. It lives upon mice, lizards, 

 and the smaller birds; makes its nest on trees , construct it 

 externally with dried twigs, and internally with wool, and 

 lays two or three white eggs of nearly the size and shape of 

 those of the common domestic hen. 



Obs. — In the appendix to Denham and Clapperton's Travels 

 and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, p. 195, it is 

 stated that "this beautiful Hawk was met with occasionally in 

 most parts of Central Africa, but not in any abundance." It is 

 placed in the Genus Astur by the writer of the observation 

 just quoted, but the length of the tarsi and its general form, 

 appear to me to ally it more to the Accipiter. 

 (T« h, cmHntti 



