FALCONID^l BUTEO 329 



Mr. Marshall gives the following account : " Fairly common and 

 more readily approachable than any of our larger Hawks. It prefers 

 to keep well within the bush, and is somewhat lethargic in its 

 habits, the flight being comparatively heavy. The following are 

 the contents of the stomach of a single bird : 2 scorpions, 2 large 

 centipedes, 4 larvte of a large cetonid beetle, and 4 locusts; in 

 addition the crop was crammed with 130 winged specimens of our 

 largest termites. This species seems specially partial to scorpions 

 and centipedes, either one or the other having been observed in 

 almost every specimen ; one also contained a small viperine snake." 

 Nothing is known about its breeding habits so far as I am aware. 

 t* o i*+ <*4> 



Type. 

 Buteo, Cuv. Le$on cVAnat. Comp. i, table 2 (1800) ... B. vulgaris. 



Culmen sharply but evenly down-curved; edge of the upper 

 mandible but slightly curved ; nostrils oval and oblique, without 

 bony tubercles ; wings long and pointed nearly reaching the tip of 

 the tail, the difference in length between the primaries and second- 

 aries far surpassing the tarsus ; tail long and slightly rounded ; 

 tibia much longer than the tarsus ; tarsus quite bare behind, 

 feathered in front (in South African species) for only about a 

 quarter of its length; covered before and behind with a row of 

 transverse plates. 



Plumage very variable, with dark, pale and rufescent variations 

 apparently not entirely dependent on age. 



This is a large genus found all over the world except in the 

 Indo-Malayan and Australasian regions. Out of six African species 

 two are well known throughout South Africa, and a third just enters 

 our limits. 



Key of the Species. 



A. Head and upper parts black. 



a. Underparts black with a rufous breast more 



or less mottled with white B.jttlwl, ml. p. 330. 



b f Underparts white or black, no rufous B. auyur, p. 333. 



B. Head and upper parts brown. 



a. Larger, wing more than 15, below, rufous- 

 brown slightly streaked with darker B. jaJcal, juv. p, 380. 



&. Smaller, wing less than 15, below, either 

 uniform smoky-brown or white, or more 

 or less mottled with smoky-brown B. desertorum, p. 333* 



