390 



A Description of the Birds 



dusky, hoary blue, with shades of brown ; part of edges of 

 inner vanes white ; tips of feathers white or reddish tawny ; 

 legs and toes yellow ; claws black. 



This bird is found throughout the whole of South Africa ; 

 but is particularly abundant along the western coast, and in 

 the country about the Twenty-four Rivers, and the Piquet- 

 berg. It frequently resorts to the habitations of the farmers, 

 and proves highly destructive to their poultry. It builds its 

 nest in the clefts of trees ; lines it inside with down and 

 feathers, and lays from four to five white eggs. 



GENUS. MILVUS. 



Bill moderately long, weak, 



and subangular above. Nostrils 



oblique, elliptical. Tarsi short. 



\ Acrotarsia scutellate. Wings 



1 very long. Fourth quill the 



longest. Tail forked. 



Rostrum mediocre, debile su- 

 perne subangulare. Nares ob- 

 liquce elliptirce. Tarsi breves. 

 Acrotarsia scutellata. Alee 

 loiwissima?. Remex 4 tlt!S - Ion- 

 gissimus ; cauda furcata. 



Milvcs parasiticus. Kuikenduif of the Colonists. 



Le parasite, Le Vailtant Ois d'Afrique, torn. 1, pi. 22. 



M. capite colloque cinereo-fuscis, nigro lincatis ; dorso et 

 hunter is fuscis ; mento et gutture longitudinaliter striatis subalbo 

 tt nigro; pectore et abdomine subferrugineis striis nigris varie- 

 gatis. 



Male. — Bill and cere yellow ; eyes dark brown; head and 

 neck pale tawny, with each feather marked in the centre by 

 a longitudinal black or blackish brown streak which includes 

 the shaft; interscapulars, back, tail coverts, and shoulders 

 brown, each feather tipt with a lighter tint; chin and throat 

 streaked longitudinally with brown and dirty white ; breast 

 and belly dirty dull rufous, with a narrow stripe of black 

 -along the centre of each feather; under tail coverts and 

 ' thighs rufous ; primary and secondary wing coverts blackish 

 brown, with light tips. Primary wing feathers black, mottled 

 slightly with white on inner vanes towards quills ; secondaries 

 brown, with the inner vanes crossed by indistinct dusky 

 bands, outer vanes sometimes of as dusky a hue as the bands. 

 Tail slightly forked, reddish brown, with eight or nine narrow 

 blackish transverse bands, and the tips of all the feathers 

 reddish white: the bands are most distinct on the inner vanes, 

 and below, on both, they are much more evident than above, 

 being there black and nearly pure white ; legs and toes yellow ; 

 claws black. Length from bill to base of tail eleven inches 

 and a half; length of latter eight and a half. 



Female. — With the exception of the rufous color being lessl 



