ACCIPTKK. 21 



Gen. Accipiter. Briss. 



Bill short, much compressed, festooned. Nostrils oval, rather oblique, 

 situated on the forepart of the cere, and partly hidden by setce. Wings moder- 

 ate, rounded, and with the 4th and $lh quills longest. Tarsi long. 



19- Accipiter niSUS, Lin. Syst. Nat. i. p. 130; Pall. Zoogr. Rosso 

 As. i. p. 370 ; Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 29 ; Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 5 1, No. 24 ; Hume, 

 Rough Notes, i. p. 124 ; Sharpe, Cat. Ace. Br. Mus. p, 132 ; Murray, Hdbk. 

 Zool. &fc. t Sind, p. HO; id. Vert. ZooL Sind ; (Basha, the female; Bashin^ 

 the male, Hind). The EUROPEAN SPARROW-HAWK. 



Young. Head, nape, neck behind, back, scapulars, and wing coverts dusky 

 brown, darker on the upper back, the feathers margined with rufous, the 

 occiput and nape with white mottlings, caused by the broad white bases of the 

 feathers showing through. Lores and eyebrow white ; chin and throat and 

 sides of the neck white, the feathers with mesial dark streaks. Ear coverts the 

 same. Rump and upper tail coverts like the back, the feathers with dark 

 shafts and tipped rufous. Primaries and secondaries dusky brown, basally 

 rufescent white on their inner webs and barred with dark brown. The tips of 

 the secondaries rufous or rufescent white ; inner web of the tertiaries 

 subterminally white, and margined at the tips with pale rufous. Tail ashy 

 brown above, greyish white on the under surface, tipped whitish and with five 

 dark brown bands ; breast, abdomen, flanks, and thigh coverts barred with 

 rufous brown and white. Under tail coverts white. Under wing lining buff, 

 with spots and transverse dark brown bars. 



Adult Male. Head, nape, hind neck, wing coverts, back, and scapulars 

 slatey, with a bluish tinge, the nape mottled white, and some of the tertials 

 basally white. Upper tail coverts and scapulars with indistinct dark shafts. 

 Tail, like the back, tipped white, and with four dark brown bands. Primaries 

 dark brown, their inner webs rufescent white, and crossed with darker brown, 

 nearly black bars ; secondaries slatey, also rufescent white on their inner webs 

 and barred acrobs with dark brown. < 'hin and thioat white, with a rufoub tinge ; 



