The Besra Haivlc. 



a few of the feathers at the bend of the -wing faintly edged with riifous — ear coverts cinereous 

 - — throat white with a longitudinal dusky streak in the centre — plumage beneath wlaite, with 

 large brown marks, long, oval, and somewhat lanceolate on the breast, more rounded on the 

 abdomen, and forming broad bars on the sides — tail with four dark brown bars on a pale 

 ashy brown ground — ie§ feathers white, closely marked with small roundish brown marks — 

 luider tail-coverts purewliite — bill blueish, black at tip — cere and orbitur skin pale greenish 

 yellow — legs and feet pale yellowish green with a glaucous tinge — hides golden yellow, with 

 an exterior circle of black — tarsus long, thin and compressed of apparently two long plates, 

 one before and one beliind. Length 10 iaches — wing from flexure 6 — tail 5 — tarsus 2. 

 The second quill is longer than other species of this genus — -the thkd is equal to the fifth, 

 and but shghtly shorter than the fourth, which is longest. There are eight scutella on the 

 posterior toe next the claw, seven on the internal, twenty -five on the centre, and seventeen 

 on the external toe. 



The specimen from which the accompanying figure was taken (as well two liv- 

 ing birds I have seen) was beginning to moult, and the new feathers were of a dark cinere- 

 ous or slaty hue, and Native Falconers assure me that such is the colour of the upper plu- 

 mage of the 5esra after its first moult and which it is said not again to change. If this be 

 the case, the specimen I procured on the side of the Neilgherries formerly alluded to cannot 

 well be this species, as it has the upper plumage of dark clove brown, whilst the under fea- 

 thers have the usual barred character of the Hawks after their first moult. It has the lower 

 plumage white, numerously and broadly barred with rufous brown, mixed with dusky brown. 

 The length of this bird was about 14 iaches — wing 7i — ^tail 5to — tarsus 2,-h — middle toe 

 with claw lA — tarsus thin, pale yellow, with the anterior and posterior scales each of one 

 entire piece, and no lateral scales. In this specimen too the head and back of neck are dark- 

 est, almost black indeed, and the tail Hght grey with four broad dark bars on the centre 

 feathers and sis on the external ones, face and ears dusky, thi'oat white, with longitudinal 

 medial stripe — and under tail-coverts pure white. I possess a drawing of this bird, but 

 am at present unwiUing to separate it fi-om the Besra till I am more thorouglily certified 

 of the changes of plumage the latter undergoes, and especially the style of the mark- 

 ings of the lower plumage. Native Falconers enumerate several varieties of the Besra, some 

 of which may be distinct species, others perhaps only varieties of colour. These I shall 

 ahude to presently. 



Two other well ascertained species of Sparrow Hawk are found in the South of 

 India, one the Accip. Dussumierii F. Dussumieni of Tenuninck, the Ace. Dukhunensis of 



