666 



Shire and Zambesi, and it was obtained at Zanzibar by Dr. Kirk, the late Captain R. M. Sperling, 

 and Baron von der Decken. 



Eastward it occurs as far as India. It is stated by Mr. A. O. Hume (Stray Feathers, i. 

 p. 163) to be comparatively rare in Sindh, though plentiful enough in the Western Punjab, and 

 he only met with it in Upper Sindh.. Mr. R. M. Adam found it breeding near the Sambhur 

 Lake; Dr. Jerdon writes (B. of India, i. p. 113) that it is found throughout India; Captain 

 J. Hayes Lloyd obtained it at Togana, in Kattiawar, Western India ; and Mr. A. Anderson says 

 (P. Z. S. 1872, p. 80) that it is by no means common in the parts of India where he was, and, 

 though a permanent resident, next to nothing is known of its nidification. He believes that it 

 breeds in the Oudh Terai, as in April one year - , when out tiger-shooting in that locality, he 

 saw great numbers of them, and is almost certain he saw one fly off its nest. According to 

 Dr. Hartlaub (J. f. O. 1854, p. 154) it has also occurred in Ceylon; but Mr. Holdsworth does 

 not include it in his list of the birds found in that island. 



In the Philippines, Celebes, Borneo, and Java it is replaced by Elanus hypoleucos, Gould, 

 which differs in having the inner webs of the quills white towards the base ; but the axillaries 

 and under wing-coverts are white as in E. cwruleus. In Australia there are two species allied to 

 the present one, viz. : — E. axillaris, Lath., which has the axillaries white, but on the under wing- 

 coverts there is a large black patch, the greater series being dark ashy grey like the wing-lining ; 

 and E. scriptus, Gould, which has a broad black bar across the under wing-coverts, and has 

 black axillaries. A fourth species (E. leucurus, Vieill.) inhabits the Southern States of North 

 America and Central and South America. It resembles E. axillaris, but has the black patch on 

 the under wing-coverts smaller, it being confined to the outermost greater coverts, the rest of the 

 series being white, slightly tinged with grey. Judging also from my specimens, E. leucurus has 

 a somewhat longer tail. 



In its habits the present species is said to somewhat resemble the Harriers ; and several 

 naturalists, amongst whom I may quote the late Mr. S. Stafford Allen, speak of it as being, to 

 some extent, crepuscular. It feeds on insects and small mammals, and is also said to prey on 

 birds; but insects probably form its staple food. Captain Shelley writes (Ibis, 1870, p. 149), "it 

 lives upon insects and mice, and I never observed any other food in the crops of four specimens 

 which I examined. The flight is rather peculiar and varied ; at Girgeh, where I first saw a pair 

 playing together, they looked very like the common Gull. The shortness of the tail detracts, to 

 my mind, much from the elegance of the bird's flight, and gives it an Owl-like appearance, which 

 is somewhat strengthened by the hour at which I saw it on the wing, sometimes hovering over 

 the water late in the evening while I have been watching for Ducks." Dr. Jerdon, writing on 

 its habits in India, says (I. c.) that " it occurs most commonly in well-wooded cultivated districts, 

 and in thin jungle, or in the skirts of the forests, avoiding alike bare plains and the depth of the 

 jungles. It is not very much on the wing, nor does it soar to any height, but either watches 

 for insects from its perch on a tree, or any elevated situation, or takes a short circuit over grain- 

 fields, long grass or thin jungle, often hovering in the air like a Kestrel, and pounces down on 

 its prey, which is chiefly insects, but also mice and rats, and probably young or feeble birds. I 

 once shot one devouring the carcass of a Dove ; but it appeared to have been dead for some time, 

 and was probably not killed by the Elanus." 



