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. MILYUS. 



Rostrum mediocre, debile su- 

 Nares ob- 



ellipticce. Tarsi breves. 

 Acrotarsia scutellata. Alee 



longissimce. Remex ^tius. Ion. 

 gwsimus ; cauda furcata. 



Bill moderately long, weak, 

 and subangular above. Nostrils 

 oblique, elliptical. Tarsi short. 

 Acrotarsia scutellate. Wings 

 very long. Fourth quill the 

 longest. Tail forked. 



MILVUS PAEASITICTTS. Kuikenduif of the Colonists. 

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



M. capite collogue cinereo-fuscis, nigro lineatis ; dorso et 

 humeris fuscis ; mento et gutture longitudinaliter striatis subalbo 

 et 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 feather 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 less 

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