316 FALCONID^ HELOTAESUS 



Iris brown ; bill, base dark orange, middle portion yellow, 

 tip black; cere and space round orbit coral coloured, sometimes 

 orange-yellow ; feet coral-red . 



Length 24-0; wing 21-0; tail 4-25; culmen 2-10; tarsus 3-1. 

 The male is slightly smaller. 



The young bird is dark brown above, with fawn coloured margins 

 to the feathers, the head and neck somewhat lighter; secondaries 

 washed with bronzy-brown slightly tipped with rufous ; tail black 

 shaded with brown tipped with rufous ; underparts brown with light 

 edgings to the feathers, more rufous on the breast and whity-brown 

 on the abdomen; thighs blackish. 



Iris brownish-yellow ; bill brown, black at tip ; cere bluish ; 

 feet yellowish. 



A form of this bird in which the rich maroon of the back is 

 replaced by creamy fulvous or white, but which differs in no other 

 respect from the type, has been considered to represent a distinct 

 species {H. leuconotus) by some authors. Others have suggested 

 that the white backed form may be the fully adult bird. Whether 

 this latter suggestion is tbe real explanation or not, there seems to 

 be hardly sufficient grounds for specific separation of these two 

 forms, the more so as their distributional areas are co-terminous. 



Distribution. — The Bateleur is found over the greater part of 

 Africa, south of the Sahara from Senegal and Abyssinia southwards, 

 including British and German east Africa, Nyasaland and Aogola. 

 In South Africa it appears to be most common in German territory 

 and Ehodesia, though occurring in the Transvaal, Natal, and the 

 Colony in some districts. The following are localities : Cape Colony 

 — Knysna (Victorin), Orange Eiver (Bradshaw), Kimberley (Holub), 

 Kuruman (Smith), Mafeking dist. (Bryden) ; Natal— near Durban 

 (Ayres), midland districts and St. Lucia Lake in Zululand (Wood- 

 ward) ; Orange river Colony — Near Kroonstad (Symonds) ; Trans- 

 vaal — Zoutspansberg (Millais) ; Bechuanaland — Near Lake Ngami 

 (Chapman) ; Ehodesia — Tati river (Ayres), Salisbury district 

 (Marshall), Upper Zambesi (Bradshaw) ; German south-west Africa 

 — Great Namaqualand and Damaraland (Andersson and Fleck). 



Habits. — The Bateleur is one of the most characteristic South 

 African birds ; it can be easily recognised even on the wing by its 

 very short stumpy tail and by its coral-red legs. It derives its 

 name of Bateleur {i.e., Harlequin or Mountebank) from its curious 

 way of turning somersaults in the air ; it also has a habit of swing- 

 ing from side to side with first one wing up and then the other. 



