182 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



The female is very much larger: length up to 16 inches, tail 7-5, wing 

 9'5, tarsus 2'4, bill from gape '85. 



The Sparrow-Hawk has been known to occur a few times in Burmah. 

 Capt. Feilden procured it at Thayetmyo, Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay at 

 Tonghoo, Capt. Raikes at Yandoon near the head of the Irrawaddy Delta, 

 and Mr. Davison on Mooleyit mountain in Tenasserim. 



It visits India, Burmah, China and Cochin China in the winter, being 

 found in summer in Central and Northern Asia. It occurs also over the 

 whole of Europe and Northern Africa, migrating in those continents accord- 

 ing to season. 



The Sparrow-Hawk is no doubt commoner in Burmah than the few 

 instances of its occurrence above recorded would lead one to suppose, for 

 it is very abundant in some of the countries to the immediate north. It 

 breeds in some portions of the Himalayas in May and June. In Europe 

 it makes a stick nest in trees, and lays three to six eggs, bluish white 

 marked with reddish brown. 



559. ACCIPITER VIRGATUS. 



THE BESRA SPARROW-HAWK. 



Falco virgatus, Reimv., Temm. PL Col. 109. Accipiter virgatus, Jerd. B. 2nd. i. 

 p. 53 j Hume, Rough Notes, i. p. 132 j Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 17 ; Hume, S. F. ii. 

 p. 141 j Sharpe, Gat. Birds B. Mus. i. p. 150 j Gurney, Ibis, 1875, p. 480 ; Bl. $ 

 Wald. B. Burm. p. 62; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 26; Legge, Birds Ceylon, 

 p. 26 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 10 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 81 ; Sharpe, S. F. viii. 

 p. 440 ; Gurney, S. F. viii. p. 443 ; Hume, S. F. ix. p. 231 ; Parker, S. F. ix. 

 p. 475 j Oates, S. F. x. p. 178 ; Kelham, Ibis, 1881, p. 365. Teraspizias rho- 

 dogastra, apud Bl. fy Wald. B. Burm. p. 62. 



Description. Male and female. Forehead, crown and nape very dark 

 bluish ashy; back, wing-coverts, scapulars, rump and upper tail-coverts 

 dark brown tinged with ashy ; quills brown, broadly barred with darker 

 brown, the bases of all whitish ; under aspect of wing brown, broadly 

 barred with white ; tail ashy brown, crossed by three broad blackish bands ; 

 sides of the head ashy brown ; chin and throat white, with a narrow brown 

 gular stripe ; centre of the breast whitish ; sides of the breast and of the 

 body and the thighs ochraceous chestnut, indistinctly barred with whitish ; 

 abdomen, vent and under tail- coverts almost pure white; under wing- 

 coverts and axillaries white barred with blackish brown. 



The young have the whole upper plumage brown, each feather margined 

 with rufous, the quills barred with blackish ; tail ashy brown, with three 

 dark bands across all the feathers but the outermost ones, which have five 



