6 CASSELLS BOOK OF IJIRDS. 



birds. Old and high trees are usually preferred for building purposes, the nest being placed on a 

 large branch near the main stem; year after year a pair of Hawks will return to the same spot, 

 at each visit making such repairs as the eyrie requires, and renewing the green branches. The eggs, 

 two to four in number, are large, long, and very wide towards the middle ; the shell is thick, rough, 

 of a greenish-white colour, and either entirely unmarked, or spotted with yellow ; the female alone 

 sits, but both parents guard the nest with jealous care, often attacking men, or even horses should 

 they approach too near. The young grow very quickly, and are so voracious that the eyrie often 

 looks like a slaughter-house, the parents having as much to do as they can manage in catering for 

 their clamorous family, whose greed is so excessive that they will often fall upon and destroy each 

 other when too impatient to await a fresh supply of food. Many and various are the means 

 employed to clear the country of these destructive birds, but all attempts prove' inadequate to cope 

 with the extreme cunning and sagacity which they display on the approach of danger. In some parts 

 of Asia their worst qualities are the points on which the favour of the native falconers is grounded, and 

 by them these birds are prized as unrivalled for the purposes of the chase ; they even employ them 

 in the pursuit of such large game as hares. When about to hunt large animals, the legs of the Hawk 

 are carefully covered with a kind of leather gaiters, to defend them when dragged through bushes and 

 brambles, as their intended victim endeavours to escape from its clutch ; seldom, however, does it 

 succeed, for the bird holds firmly on with one foot, keeping the other raised to clear aside the 

 branches, or get a firm grasp upon a bush, and thus arrest the progress of its quarry when the proper 

 moment arrives. 



The SINGING HAWKS (Melierax) are an African group, differing somewhat in shape 

 from their European relatives. Their body is more slender, the beak less powerful, and the 

 wings longer than in the races hitherto described ; the tail is rounded at its extremity ; the tarsi are 

 strong and high, and the feet provided with comparatively short claws. 



THE TRUE SINGING HAWK. 

 The True Singing Hawk. (Melierax musicus), as the largest member of this group is called, 

 inhabits Southern Africa, and is replaced in the central portions of that continent by another species 

 (Melierax polygonns), closely resembling it in appearance, though somewhat smaller. In the latter 

 the plumage on the upper part of the body, throat, and upper breast, is slate-coloured ; the belly, 

 wings, hose, and large wing-covers are white, striped with delicate grey zig-zag markings. The quills 

 are brownish black, the tail-feathers of a paler shade, the latter are tipped with white, and striped 

 three times with a crooked white line ; the iris is of a beautiful brown, the beak dark blue, the cere 

 and feet bright orange. The length of this bird is about one foot seven inches, its breadth three feet 

 two inches ; the wing measures eleven inches and two-thirds, the tail eight inches and one-third. 

 The female is about one inch and a half longer and two inches broader than her mate. The 

 plumage of the young is brown above, and upon the belly and breast white striped across with light 

 brown ; the sides of the head and a line over the breast are of the latter colour. The first-mentioned 

 species is similar in its colour and markings. Le Vaillant, who first described these remarkable 

 Hawks, tells us that they are numerous in Caffraria, where they usually frequent the widely scattered 

 trees, and subsist principally upon hares, partridges, quails, rats, mice, or similar fare. The nest is 

 large, and contains four pure white eggs. Le Vaillant has given the name of Singing Hawk to the 

 species, from an extraordinary fact of which he assures us he had personal experience, namely, that 

 they are capable of pouring out a flow of song, and sometimes continue their vocal exercise for 

 hours together. For our own part we have never heard one of these birds sing, and therefore musf 



