ACCIPITRES. 

 FALCONID.E. 

 ACCIPLTRIN.E. 



Genus ACCIPITEE. 



Bill slightly shorter and more feeble than in Astur ; festoon equally prominent. Nostrils 

 large, oval, protected by the loral plumes. Wings similar to Astur, but the first quill longer ; 

 tail longer. Tarsi long, slender, the scuta? less pronounced ; middle toe long, the inner reaching 

 only to the first joint. Structurally of slender form. 



ACCIPITEE VIBGATUS. 



(THE JUNGLE SPARROW-HAWK.) 



Falco virgatus, Temm. PI. Col. i. pi. 109 (1823). 



Accipiter virgatus, Vig. Zool. Journ. i. p. 338 (1824); Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. Tl 

 (1849); Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 52; Hume, Rough Notes, i. p. 132; Jerd. Ibis, 1871, 

 p. 243; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 411 (first record from Ceylon); Hume, Stray 

 Feathers, 1874, p. 141 ; Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 10, and 1875, p. 276 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds, 

 i. p. 150 ; Gumey, Ibis, 1875, pp. 480-83; David and Oustalet, Ois. de la Chine, 

 p. 26 (1877). 



Nisus virgatus, Less. Man. d'Orn. i. p. 97 (1828); Schlegel, Vog. Nederl. Ind., Valkv. pp. 20, 

 59, pi. 12. figs. 1-4 (1866). 



Accipiter stevensoni, Gurney, Ibis, 1863, p. 447, pi. xi. 



Accipiter besra, Jerd. Madr. Journal, x. p. 84 (1839); id. 111. Ind. Orn. pi. 4 (1847). 



The Besra Sparroiv-Haivk, Jerdon ; Besra, popularly in India. 



Besra (female), Llwti (male), Hind, (apud Jerdon). 



Jungle-Hawk, Europeans in Ceylon. 



Yao, Chinese at Pekin (Pere David). 



Ukussa, Sinhalese. 



Adult male (Ceylon). Length to front of cere 10-0 to 10'3 ; culmen from cere 0'5 ; wing 6-0 to 6-4 ; tail 4-G to 5-0 ; 

 tarsus 1-9 to 2-05 ; middle toe 1-2 to 1-25, its claw (straight) 0-35 to 0-4 ; height of bill at cere 0-27. 



Iris yellow ; cere, loral skin, and eyelid yellow ; the top of the cere sometimes greenish ; bill dark horn, base and near 

 the gape bluish ; front of tarsus greenish yellow ; posterior part with the sides of the toes and the soles lemon- 

 yellow. 



In the fully aged bird the head, hind neck, back, and wings are very dark ashen, the head deeper than the rest and 

 concolorous with the cheeks and ear-coverts ; frequently a brownish wash is perceptible on the back ; the hind neck 



