4472 THE ZooLoGisT—JUNE, 1875. 
we reared and kept eighteen months: it became extremely tame, 
and would even “hoot” whilst roosting on our hands. When 
about a year old we got him a companion, which we took from a 
hole in’an old tree: the two lived together in great amity, and 
would constantly caress each other, like a pair of love birds. It 
lays two or three white eggs and forms no nest, frequenting the 
same hole every year: they are said to breed in the roofs of farm- 
houses. 
Hawks.—We shall note a few of the common species we have 
met with in Natal: there are an immense variety of the Falconide : 
Mr. E, Layard enumerates no less than forty-seven different species 
in his ‘ Catalogue of the Birds of South Africa’—a valuable book 
of reference for the African naturalist. 
We have three very common sparrowhawks, Accipiter Tachiro, 
A. Polyzonides and A. minullus. They are, respectively, sixteen 
inches, fourteen inches and twelve inches in length. The plumage 
of the three birds is almost the same, being dark brown above and 
whitish beneath, with wavy bars. They are bold and rapacious in 
their habits, and are very destructive to poultry: we have seen the 
larger kind dart down and carry off a full-grown fowl within a yard 
or two of the spot where we were standing. We have also seen it 
pursuing a flock of pigeons: its plan of attack seemed to be to 
endeavour to separate one from the main body by dashing in 
amongst them; if it managed this it soon succeeded in bearing off 
its prey in triumph. 
Accipiter minullus is a beautiful little hawk, not larger in the 
body than a thrush, but although so small it is quite as fearless as 
its larger cousins. A specimen we have in our collection was taken 
whilst vigorously assailing a hen with a brood of chickens, which 
she was doing her best to defend: it had actually grasped the fowl 
by the head, and would probably soon have overcome her had it 
not been disturbed. We kept one of these birds tame for some 
months, but it never lost its savage nature, and would not allow 
any other bird to be confined with it. It builds in a tall tree, 
making a large nest of sticks, which it occupies year by year, and 
lays from two to five eggs. 
The blackcrested hawk (Lophoaétus occipitalis) is entirely of a 
black-brown colour, with the exception of a little white on the 
under feathers of the wings and tail; the legs are covered to the toes 
with snow-white feathers, giving the bird the curious appearance 
