SPIZIAPTEEYX CIRCUMCINCTUS. 



Concerning its breeding-habits Mr. Gibson writes : " In the year 

 1873 I was so fortunate as to find a breeding colony in one of our 

 largest and deepest swamps. There were probably twenty or thirty 

 nests, placed a few yards apart, in the deepest and most lonely part of 

 the whole ' canadon/ They were slightly built platforms,, supported 

 on the rushes and two or three feet above the water, with the cup-shaped 

 hollow lined with pieces of grass and water-rush. The eggs never 

 exceeded three in a nest ; the ground-colour generally bluish white, 

 blotched and clouded very irregularly with dull red-brown, the rufous 

 tint sometimes being replaced with ash-grey." 



308. SPIZIAPTEEYX CIRCUMCINCTUS (Kaup). 

 (SPOT-WINGED FALCON.) 



Falco circumcinctus, Scl. Ibis, 1862, p. 23, pi. ii. Spiziapteryx circum- 

 cinctus, Scl. et Salv. Nomencl. p. 122 ; White, P. Z. S. 1682, p. 623 (Cata- 

 marca) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. i. p. 371. Falco punctipennis, Burm. J. f. O. 

 1860, p. 242. Hemiierax circumcinctus, Burm. La-Plata Reise, ii. 

 p. 438. 



Description. Above brown, with black shaft-stripes ; head black, with brown 

 stripes and white superciliaries, which join round the nape, forming an ill-defined 

 nuchal band ; rump pure white ; wings black, with white oval spots on the 

 outer and white bars on the inner webs ; tail black, all the lateral rectrices 

 crossed by five or six broad white bars : beneath white, breast regularly striped 

 with narrow black shaft-stripes ; bill plumbeous, lower mandible yellow, except 

 at the tip ; feet greenish, nails black : whole length 11 inches, wing 6'5, tail 5'0. 

 Female similar, but rather larger. 



Hab. Argentina. 



This small Hawk is sometimes met with in the woods of La Plata, 

 near the river ; it is rare, but owing to its curious violent flight, with 

 the short blunt wings rapidly beating all the time, it is very conspi- 

 cuous in the air and well known to the natives, who call it Rey de los 

 Pajaros (King of the Birds), and entertain a very high opinion of its 

 courage and strength. I have never seen it taking its prey, and do not 

 believe that it ever attempts to capture anything in the air, its short 

 blunt wings and peculiar manner of flight being unsuited for such a 

 purpose. Probably it captures birds by a sudden dash when they mob 

 it on its perch ; and I do not know any raptor more persistently run 

 after and mobbed by small birds. I once watched one for upwards of 

 an hour as it sat on a tree attended by a large flock of Guira Cuckoos, 

 all excitedly screaming and bent on dislodging it from its position. 



