48 BIRDS OF INDIA, 



Ncelo"hernc?, and occasionally commits depredation on pigeons and 

 cliickens, making a pounce on them fi'om a considerable height. 

 In general It keeps to the woods or their skirts, dashing on birds 

 sometimes from a perch on a tree, but generally circling over the 

 woods, and making a sudden pounce on any suitable prey that 

 offers Itself. It liunts very usually in pairs. I did not find it 

 breedlno-, but Layard asserts that it breeds on rocks in Ceylon ; that 

 it is a bold and daring bird, robbing hens' roosts ; and that it is 

 trained in Ceylon. It used, indeed, to be so in India formerly ; but 

 I have never seen a trained one here. It was tauglit to stilke 

 partridges chiefly. McLelland must have been greatly misin- 

 formed by the natives, when he says it " conceals itself in bushes 

 and grass along the edge of the water, seizing such fishes as ap- 

 proach the surface within its reach." This might be the case witli 

 Poliornis teesa, a bird of about the same size as this Goshawk, and 

 for which it was probably taken by his native informant. 



Gen. MiCRONisus, Gray. 



Syn. Nisastu7' Blyth. 



Char. — Bill short, curving from the base, moderately compress- 

 ed, the festoon not remarkably prominent ; tall moderately lon<>-, 

 not very slender ; tarsus comparatively short, stout, with promi- 

 nent scuta in front, and a few behind, and the reticulated scales 

 on the sides very distinct ; toes short, stout ; inner toe about 

 equal to the hind toe. 



These Hawks are found in the'liot parts of the Old World, and 

 differ from the true Sparrow-hawks in their stouter make, shorter 

 tarsus and toes, and also in coloration. They are birds of much 

 less bold and daring disposition in their wild state, and less speedy 

 than the true Sparrowhawks, living a good deal on reptiles ; 

 but they are very docile, and by good training become very 

 courageous. 



23. Micronisus badius, Gmel. 



Falco, apud Gmelin — Blttr, Cat. 98 — Horsf., Cat. 48 — 

 Jerdon, 2nd Suppl. Cat. 32 — Falco BroAvnii, Shaw — Broavn, 

 111. Zool., pi. 3.— F. Dussumierii, TexM., PI. col. 308— 326— A. 



