AND IN PARTS OF WYNAAD AND SOUTHERN MYSORE. 335 
The following are the dimensions and colours of soft parts 
of a fine male shot in the cardamum forests, Peria, Wynaad, 
on the 2nd of May 1881 :— 
Male.—Length, 15:0; expanse, 27°3; tail, 6-8; wing, 8:2; 
tarsus, 2°2; bill from gape, 1:1; weight, 8 ozs. Irides orange ; 
legs and feet chrome yellow; claws, upper mandible, edges 
and tip of lower mandible black; rest of lower mandible 
plumbeous blue; gape, cere, edges of eyelids and facial skin 
greenish yellow. 
23.—Astur badius, Gm. The Shikra. 
This species is not uncommon on the plateau of the Nilghiris, 
but occurs more commonly on the slopes of the hills and in the 
Wynaad. 
24.—Accipiter nisus, Zin. The Sparrow Hawk. 
A winter visitant, and occurring sparingly on the hills. 
A female shot at Ootacamund on the 7th of February 1881 is 
undistinguishable from many European specimens, showing 
no approach to melaschistus, 
25.—Accipiter virgatus, Reizw, The Besra. 
This species is rare on the Nilghiris. I obtained a couple on the 
Coonoor Ghat, and have seen it several times in the same loca- 
lity. Idid not meet with it in the Wynaad or the Mysore 
country. It is a forest-loving bird, keeping to the forest or its 
outskirts, and never, that I am aware, coming any distance into 
the open. I have occasionally seen it taking short circling 
flights above the tree tops, but usually it keeps low down, on 
the lower branches of the larger trees, or in the undergrowth, 
taking short rapid flights from tree to tree, generally giving 
itselfa shake on alighting. It is very watchful and difficult to 
approach once it suspects danger. One specimen I shot, a 
male, had seized a Carpodacus erythrinus, and in its stomach I 
found the remains of a green tree-lizard and a_ black wood- 
beetle. It is, I think, a very silent bird, and only once have I 
heard its note—a rather prolonged soft double whistle, rather 
an odd note fora Hawk. It is I think a permanent resident, 
but I have never found its nest. 
[31.—Hieraetus pennatus, Gm. The Booted Eagle. 
Not uncommon in the Wynaad, from which I received a pair 
many years ago.—A. O. H.] 
32.—Neopus malayensis, Reinw. The Black Eagle. 
This fine Eagle is not uncommon on the Nilghiris and its 
slopes. Jerdon has so well and fully described its habits that I 
