286 FALCONID^ BAZA 



Description. Adult male. — Head, neck, and shoulders dark 

 grey with fine black shaft lines ; centre of the back and wings 

 black, the primaries barred with white on the inner webs for about 

 three quarters of their length ; upper tail-coverts pale silvery-grey ; 

 tail the same colour strongly barred with black and tipped with 

 white, the subfcerminal black band being considerably broader 

 than the others; below, dark grey, darkest on the flanks, nearly 

 white on the under tail-coverts, most of the feathers with black 

 shaft marks ; under wing-coverts mottled black and grey. 



Iris reddish-brown ; bill bluish-black ; cere, orbits, and base of 

 lower mandible yellow ; legs orange ; claws black. 



Length 11-5 ; wings 8-5 ; tail 5-5 ; culmen 0-80 ; tarsus 1"70. 



The female is similar in plumage but rather larger ; wing 9'0. 



The young female bird has a reddish-yellow head and neck, and 

 is a paler grey below. 



Distribution. — This, a somewhat rare Hawk, is confined to the 

 southern half of Africa. The type was obtained by Dickinson 

 at Chibisa, on the Shire river in Nyasaland, and it has also been 

 found in the Zambesi valley, from whence it ranges to Ovampo- 

 land and Benguella in the west and to the Eovuma valley in the 

 east. 



South African localities are : Ehodesia — Tamafopha, between 

 Bulawayo and the Victoria falls, April (Bradshaw and Holub), Chobe 

 river (Bradshaw in S. A. Mus.), Sahsbury (Marshall in litt.) ; Portu- 

 guese east Africa — Tete on the Zambesi, August (Alexander) ; 

 German south-west Africa — Ochimbora in Ovampoland, November 

 (Eriksson in S. A. Mus.). 



Habits. — Little is known of the habits of this Kestrel ; Holub 

 states that it preys chiefly on small birds such as weavers and 

 finches, and that it lives in small companies. Anchieta found that 

 it appeared in flocks in August in Caconda, and fed on insects 

 disturbed by grass fires. Mr. Whyte found it nesting in Nyasaland 

 in the fronds of tall palms, and it is probably a resident throughout 

 its range. 



Genus III. BAZA. 



Type. 

 Baza, Hodgson, Journ. A. S. B. v, p. 777 (1836) B. lophotes. 



Bill strong, with two distinct teeth on the edge of the upper 

 mandible behind the hook ; cere narrow ; nostrils elongate and slit- 



