HUME'S GOSHAWK. 179 



556. ASTUR POLIOPSIS. 

 HUME'S GOSHAWK. 



Micronisus poliopsis, Hume, & F. ii. p. oitf ; /</. ,S. F. iii. p. 24 ; Cripps, S. F. v. 

 p. 81. Astur poliopsis, Sharpe, Cat. Bird* 1>. Mas. i. p. 110; JBingham, S. F. 

 v. p. 81 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 24 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 7 ; Ander- 

 son. Yunnan Exped. p. 573 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 81 ; Bingham, S. F. viii. p. 190, 

 ix. p. 143 j Oates, S. F. x. p. 178. Micrastur badius, Bl. 8f Wald. B. Burm. 

 p. 62. Scelospizias poliopsis, Gurney, Ibis, 1875, p. 361. 



Description. Male and female. Upper plumage bluish grey, the nape 

 mottled with white ; central tail-feathers barless, the others with broken 

 bars of brown and tipped whitish ; throat dusky white ; lower plumage 

 bright rufous narrowly barred with white ; thighs, under tail-coverts and 

 vent white ; quills ashy grey, barred on the inner webs with dark brown 

 arid the interspaces white. 



A very young bird is brown above, all the feathers edged rufous ; tail 

 ashy brown, with dark brown bars and tipped with whitish ; lower plumage 

 white ; the throat with a central stripe of brown, the other parts with 

 large, central, rufous-brown drops ; quills brown, barred with darker brown, 

 and a large portion of the inner webs rufous-white. At the next stage the 

 rufous edgings to the upper plumage are lost and the drops on the lower 

 parts are more thickly disposed and exhibit a tendency to bars. 



Length 12*5 inches, tail 6'5, wing 7'2 to 8, tarsus 2, bill from gape *9. 

 The female is larger than the male : length 14 inches, tail 7, wing 8*5. 



This bird is hardly more than a race of A. badius of India. It differs 

 in being rather larger, in wanting the rufous on the nape, in being of a 

 purer grey, in wanting the throat-stripe in the adult, and in having the 

 rufous bands below broader. 



Hume's Goshawk is found over the whole province in greater or less 

 abundance. 



It extends north as far as Cachar, it is met with in China, Siam and 

 Cochin China, and it probably ranges some distance down the Malay 

 peninsula. Mr. Gurney mentions (/. c.) a bird from Ceylon as belonging 

 to this race ; but some mistake must underlie this statement. 



This Goshawk is found in well-wooded parts of the country and feeds on 

 insects and small reptiles. Capt. Bingham found the nest in Tenasserim 

 in April ; it was made of sticks and placed in the branch of a large tree, 

 and it contained three eggs, which were pale bluish white. 



