22 FALCONIOdE. 



breast, flanks, and abdomen barred with bright rufous and white. Thigh coverts 

 the same. Under tail coverts white. Under wing coverts barred with rufous 

 and dark brown. Bill horny or dark horn blue , cere, base of lower man- 

 dible, and legs yellow ; iris orange. 



Length. 13 inches; wing 8' 15 ; tail 6-3 ; tarsus 2-3. Females* larger and 

 of a duller tint. Length 15*5 ; wing 9-3 to 9-5 ; tail 7 ; tarsus 2*5. 



Hal. The whole of Europe and Northern Asia, extending in winter into 

 Algeria, N. E. Africa, the Indian Peninsula, and China (Sharpe). Occurs 

 throughout Sind, Punjab, N.-W. Provinces, Oudh, and Bengal ; also through- 

 out the Western Presidency, in Rajpootana, Central India, Kutch, Guzerat, 

 Concan, Deccan, Southern India, and in Beloochistan, Persia, Mesopotamia, 

 and Afghanistan ; also British Burmah, Upper Pegu, Tennaserim, and Nepal. 

 Affects gardens and cultivation. It is much used for hawking, and is said to* 

 be easily tamed, and owing to its courage, a better bird than the Shikra 

 for the quarry. 



Mr. Hume in his " Rough Notes," p. 128, describes in detail the Dove-Hawk 

 (Accipiter melaschistos) from Simla as a new sp-ecies which Mr. Sharpe 

 thinks is only a dark race of this species. 



20. Accipiter virgatUS, Temm. PL Col. i. pi, 109 ; Vig. ZooLJourn. 

 i- P- 338; Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 29; Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 52, No. 25 ; Hume, 

 Rough Notes, i. p. 132; Jerd. Ibis, 1871, p. 243; Sharpe, Cat. Ace. Br. 

 Mus. vol. i. p. 150 ; Stray F. vol. ii. p. 141. The BESRA SPARROW-HAWK. 



Adult Male. Head and neck dusky black, sides of the neck washed with 

 rufous, nape mottled with white ; ear coverts and face light dusky, throat buffy 

 white ; wing coverts blackish slate colour. Quills dark brown, unbarred above ; 

 under surface ashy, pale rufous near the base of the inner web and barred, with 

 blackish. Tail ashy grey above, much paler below, with three transverse bands 

 of slatey black. Abdomen and under tail coverts white, rest of under surface 

 bright ferruginous or vinous chestnut, paler on the thighs ; under wing coverts 

 yellowish ochry ; axillaries barred with brownish. Cere pale lemon yellow ; 

 bill black, plumbeous at base. Legs and feet pale orange yellow. I rides yellow. 



Length. ll to H'25 inches; wing 6-5 to 6'6 ; tail 15*75 to&6; tarsus 



1*9 tO 2'2. 



Adult Female. A little larger than the male. 

 Length. 13 inches; wing 7-4 to 8; tarsus rg to 2'2. 



The plumage of the various stages of the young of this species is so very 

 variable, that it is not possible to give a description which would suit, but 

 the following from Rough Notes is the usual type of colouration of specimens 

 from the Punjab, in the Kurraclice Museum. Head, nape, back, mantle, and 



