22 ASTUR TRIVIRGATUS. 



the jungles of the Pasdun Korale and the district of Saffragam, it is doubtless resident and breeds. In tin- 

 Peak Forests it is likewise not uncommon. As regards its range into the mountain-zone I do not know of 

 its having been found ahove 3500 feet. Ahout the neighbourhood of Kandy, and at Nilambe and Dcltota, it 

 is frequently shot, there being in general one or two examples in Messrs. Whyte and Co.'s establishment. 



The Gor-Besra, as it is called in India, is spread over the peninsular portion of the empire, inhabiting 

 the Nilghiris perhaps more commonly than other wooded regions. It does not appear to be an abundant 

 species, as but few instances of its occurrence are recorded in ' Stray Feathers,' whereas frequent mention is 

 made of its northern ally from the Himalayas, Nepal, Kutnaon, and Assam. Our bird appears to be found in 

 Pegu, as it is included in Mr. Oates's list, and to the south-east of Burmah it seems to have a very extended 

 range, inhabiting Malacca, Java, Sumatra, portions of Borneo and the Philippine Islands, together with 

 Formosa. From the island of Sumatra it seems to have been first known, Cuvier giving that island as its sole 

 habitat. It does not extend eastwards from Burmah towards China, which is a singular feature in its distri- 

 bution, seeing that it has such an extensive south-easterly range. Perc David did not meet with it anywhere 

 in the latter country; nor did Mr. Swinhoc in all his experience on the coast of the Celestial Empire. 



Habits. — This bold bird is almost entirely a denizen of the forest, in the tallest trees of which I have 

 usually met with it, giving out its shrill monosyllabic scream (or, more properly speaking, whistle) as a 

 call-note, perhaps, to its mate, or in defiance of the group of small birds which very frequently are found 

 haranguing it at a respectful distance. In this latter respect it much resembles its smaller cousin, the Besra 

 (Accipiter virgatus) ; for I have more than once found it surrounded by a host of angry White-eyebrowed and 

 Forest Bulbuls*, accompanied by one or two equally energetic Kingcrows, darting and flying round in the 

 highest state of excitement, while the Goshawk, with an air of injured innocence, sat stolidly on the capacious 

 limb of some enormous Koombook tree, screaming at its tormentors to the utmost of its powers. This habit 

 of the small birds, I must here state, carries with it some amount of injustice ; for though this hawk is 

 frequently given a bad character for not respecting the life of his feathered friends, and appropriating for his 

 larder sundry small chickens, pigeons, and that ilk, I have invariably found his food to consist of lizards, to 

 none of which is he so partial as to the Green Calotes (Calotes viridis). I have shot him in the forests of the 

 Vanni, screaming with delight over a brilliantly green Lizard which hung, pinned by his talons, to a branch, 

 while his stomach was crammed with just such another. Layard, in his ' Notes on Ceylon Ornithology,' 

 says that it swoops down to the poultry-yard from " some towering tree or butting rock, and, despite the fury 

 and resistance of the faithful mother, rendered fiercer by despair, the foe generally carries off one, if not two, 

 of her family." 



Jerdon also remarks, in the ' Birds of India/ that " it is not very rare in the Neilgherries, and occa- 

 sionally commits depredations on pigeons and chickens, making a pounce on them from a considerable height. 

 It generally 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." 



Layard says that they are used by native falconers in Ceylon for hunting, and mentions that he saw one 

 at Anaradjapura, which had been hoodwinked by having its eyelids sewn up, " the thread running through 

 them so as to draw the edges together at pleasure." I have seldom seen it fly any distance, nor observed it 

 far away from the outskirts of woods ; but its progression from point to point in the forest is swift and 

 performed with quick beatings of the wings. 



It was formerly, according to Jerdon, used for falconry in India, and was taught to strike Partridges. 



Nidification. — The nest of the Crested Goshawk does not appear to have ever been found. Mr. Hume 

 has not succeeded in eliciting any information from his numerous correspondents concerning its nidification ; 

 and all we know concerning its breeding is what Layard tells us — that it nests in the " holes and crevices 

 of precipitous rocks." 



* Ixus luteolus and Criniger ictericus. 



