358 FALCONIDJB 



ASTUR 



stood. It makes excursions high into the air, uttering a peculiar 

 piercing squeak, which can be heard a great distance off. 



A nest was found by Mr. Graham Hutchinson and Dr. Stark 

 near the summit of the Bushman Pass between Escourt in Natal 

 and Basutoland on November 4th ; it was placed about 40 feet up 

 in the bushy top of a rather slender tree ; it was large and deeper 

 than that of an English Sparrow Hawk and was built of large dead 

 sticks, lined with green twigs with leaves still attached, torn from 

 the tree on which the nest was built. Two fresh eggs, pure creamy- 

 white, were taken on this occasion. 



544. Astur polyzonoides. Little Banded Goshawk. 



Accipiter polyzonoides, Smith, El. Zool. S. Afr. Aves, pi. 11 (1838) ; 

 Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 29 (1867) ; Gurney, Ibis, 1868, p. 144 ; Ayres, 

 Ibis, 1869, p. 288 [Transvaal] ; Gurney in Andersson's B. Damara- 

 land, p. 38 (1872). 



Astur polyzonoides, Sharjje, Cat. B. M. i, p. 138 (1874) ; Sharpe, ed. 

 Layard's B. S. Afr. pp. 22, 796 (1875-84) ; Gurney, Ibis, 1875, p. 

 360 ; Barratt, Ibis, 1876, p. 195 ; Ayres, Ibis, 1877, p. 340 ; Gates, 

 Matabeleland, p. 298 (1881) ; Holub §• Peheln, Orn. Siid-Afr. p. 

 35 (1882) ; Shelley and Ayres, Ibis, 1882, p. 237 [Mashonaland] ; 

 Ayres, Ibis, 1884, p. 219 ; W. Ayres, Ibis, 1887, p. 417 [Zoutspans- 

 berg] ; Fleck, Journ. Ornith. 1894, p. 393 [Gt. Namaqualand] ; Shelley, 

 B. Afr. i, p. 152 (1896) ; Woodward Bros. Natal B. p. 142 (1899) ; 

 Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 256 [Mashonaland]; Alexander, Ibis, 1900, 

 p. 437 [Zambesi] ; Beichenoiv, Vog. Afr. i, p. 556 (1901). 



Description. Adii.lt male. — Above, blue-grey with concealed 

 white bases to the feathers of the nape and scapulars; primary 

 quills dark slate coloured, both they and the secondaries barred 

 with white on the basal half of the inner webs ; two centre tail- 

 feathers unbarred, outer ones with about six darker cross bars, the 

 interspaces becoming whiter and the bars more conspicuous towards 

 the outer feathers; cheeks and the sides of the neck and throat 

 paler than the back ; rest of the under surface white, the breast, 

 upper abdomen, thighs and under wing-coverts traversed by five 

 cross bars of pale brown, the under tail-coverts plain. 



Iris crimson to orange, eyelids yellow ; bill dark elate with a 

 black tip ; cere light orange yellow ; tarsi and feet orange, claws 

 black. The colours of these parts vary considerably in different 

 individuals. 



Length 11-25 ; wing 7-0 ; tail 5-25 ; culmen 0-70 ; tarsus 1-75. 



