WHITE-TAILED HAWRK. 283 
rivers. Jt is very common in Congo, and numerous also in 
Barbary, Egypt, and far distant Syria. The researches of 
Ruppel in the interior of north-eastern Africa, already so 
productive, and from which so much more may be expected, 
have furnished specimens of this species, of which we owe two 
to the kindness of Dr Creitzschmaer, the learned and zealous 
director of the museum of the free city of Frankfort—an in- 
stitution which has risen up with such wonderful rapidity. 
We are also informed that it is an inhabitant of India, which 
is rendered probable by a specimen from Java in my collection. 
Tt isfound in New Holland, being numerous in the autumn of 
New South Wales, where it is migratory, and preys chiefly on 
field-mice, but is seldom known to attack birds. It is there 
observed at times to hover in the air, as if stationary and mo- 
tionless. Though occasionally met with on the African coast 
of the Mediterranean, not a solitary individual has ever been 
known to visit the opposite shores of Italy, Spain, or Turkey, 
nor has it been met with in any other part of Europe. 
When at rest, it is generally seen perched on high bushes, 
where the pure white of the lower parts of its body renders it 
very conspicuous at a distance. It utters a sharp piercing cry, 
which is often repeated, especially when on the wing, though 
Mr Peale assures us that our individual uttered no ery. Like 
its closely related species, it does not attack small birds, except 
for the purpose of driving them from its favourite food, which 
consists of hemipterous insects, chiefly of the Gryllus and Man- 
tis genera, as well as other insects, and some reptiles. In the 
stomach of our specimen, however, Mr Peale found, besides the 
usual food, fragments of an Arvicola hispidus, and one or 
two feathers, apparently of a sparrow : but it is not a cowardly 
bird, as might be suspected from its affinity to the kites, and 
from its insignificant prey, since it successfully attacks crows, 
shrikes, and even the more timid birds of its own genus, com- 
pelling them to quit its favourite haunts, which it guards with 
a vigilant eye. They build in the bifurcation of trees. The 
nest is broad and shallow, lined internally with moss and 
