348 FALCONID^ ACCIPITBR 



tarsus long and slender, scaled as in Astur ; middle toe very long 

 without claw easily exceeding twice the ridge of the culmen 

 without cere. 



This genus is cosmopoUtan, containing according to Sharpe 

 forty-two species ; ten of them are African and four South African.^ 



CDO^^SSS?^' 



Fig. 120.— Beak and middle toe of 4ccy«ic»' >'M/ii'e»i"s. y. \. 



Key of the Species. 



A. Small, wing under 6'5 ; upper tail-ooverts 



white; tail feathers with white spots on 



the inner webs A. minullus, p. 348. 



B. Size moderate, wing from 8'0 to lO'O. 



a. Upper taU-coverts like the back ; under 



parts chestnut-rufous A. rufiventria, p. 350. 



6. Upper taU-coverts white spotted ; under- 



parts white transversely banded with 



grey A. ovampenais, p. 352. 



C. Size large, wing ll'O to 13'0 ; black above, 



black or black and white below A. melcmoleucua, p. 353. 



539. Accipiter minoUus. Little Sparrow Hawk. 



Le Minule, Levaillanf, Ois. d'Afr. i, p. 140, pi. 34 (juv.) (1799). 



Falco minullus. Baud. Traite, n, p. 88 (1800). 



Accipiter minullus, Smith, S. A. Quart. Journ. i, p. 226 (1830) ; Gurney, 

 Ibis, 1859, p. 242 [Natal] ; Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 29 (1867) ; Gurney, 

 Ibis, 1868, p. 144 ; id. in Andersson's B. Damaraland, p. 31 (1872) ; 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. M. i, p. 140 (1874) ; Shariic, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. 

 pp. 23, 796 (1875-84); Shelley, Ibis, 1875, p. 65 [near Durban]; 

 Gurney, Ibis, 1875, p. 473 ; Ayres, Ibis, 1879, p. 387 [Kustenburg] ; 

 1886, p. 283 [Limpopo river] ; W. Ayres, Ibis, 1887, p. 47 [Zout- 

 spansberg] ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 152 (1896) ; Sharpe, Ibis, 1897, p. 495 

 [Zululand] ; Woodward Bros. Ibis, 1898, p. 219, id. Natal B. p. 142 

 (1899) ; Alexander, Ibis, 1900, p. 437 [Zambesi] ; Beichetiow, Vog. 

 Afr. i, p. 561 (1901). 



' An old mounted Sparrow Hawk in the South African Museum, stated to 

 have been procured at Swellendam by Mr. W. Atmore, appears to be referable to 

 the European Accipiter nisus. 



