362 



FALCONID^ 



MELIEEAX 



paler brown or slaty with an increasing amount of white on the 

 outer webs ; chin white, chest brown, mottled with darker brown 

 centres to the feathers ; more rufous on the belly and thigh, streaked 

 and spotted with white throughout, under wing-coverts white 

 marked with rufous. 



Iris yellewish-green ; beak black ; cere yellow ; legs orange. 



Distribution. — The Chanting Goshawk is essentially an inhabi- 

 tant of the western and dryer half of South Africa. It is spread 

 over the western and central districts of the Colony as far as the 

 Fish Eiver Eand in the Albany division, and thence northwards 

 over Bechuanaland, the western Transvaal, and German south-west 

 Africa; it has only once, so far as I am aware, been obtained in 

 Natal and must be very rare in the eastern half of South Africa. 

 Beyond our limits this bird has recently been obtained in Nyasaland 

 in the Lugenda river valley. 



Fig. 125. — Melierax canorus. x 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony Worcester, 



Eobertson (S. A. Mus.), Beaufort West (Layard), Oudtshoorn 

 (Victorin), Willowmore (Atmore and Bryden), Pish river Eand in 

 Albany division (Grahamstown Museum), Orange river near 

 Upington (Bradshaw), near Aliwal North (Whitehead), Griqualand 

 West (S. A. Mus.) ; Natal— Eichmond (Fitzsimmons and Wood- 

 ward) ; Transvaal — Potchefstroom and Limpopo river (Ayres) ; 

 Bechuanaland (Bradshaw and Holub) ; German south-west Africa 

 ^Great Namaqualand and Damaraland (Andersson and Fleck). 



