HUME^S GOSHAWK. 
179 
556. ASTUR POLIOPSIS. 
HUME^S GOSHAWK. 
Micronisus poliopsis, Hume, S. F. ii. p. 325 ; id. 8. F. iii. p. 24 ; Cripps, S. F. v. 
p. 81. Astur poliopsis, Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. i. p. 110 ; Bingham, S. F. 
V. p. 81 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 24; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 7 ; Ander- 
son, Yunnan Exped. p. 573 ; Hume, 8. F. viii. p. 81 ; Bingham, 8. F. viii. p. 190, 
ix. p. 143 ; Oates, 8. F. x. p. 178. Micrastur badius, Bl. ^ Wald. B. Burm. 
p. 62. Scelospizias poliopsis, Gurney, Ibis, 1875, p. 361. 
Description, — Male and female. Upper plumage bluish grey, tlie nape 
mottled with white ; central tail-feathers barless^ the others with broken 
bars of brown and tipped whitish ; throat dusky white ; lower plumage 
bright rufous narrowly barred with white ; thighs,, under tail-coverts and 
vent white ; quills ashy grey^ barred on the inner webs with dark brown 
and the interspaces white. 
A very young bird is brown above^ all the feathers edged rufous ; tail 
ashy brown^ with dark brown bars and tipped with whitish ; lower plumage 
white ; the throat with a central stripe of brown, the other parts with 
large^ central; rufous-brown drops ; quills brown^ barred with darker brown, 
and a large portion of the inner webs rufous-white. At the next stage the 
rufous edgings to the upper plumage are lost and the drops on the lower 
parts are more thickly disposed and exhibit a tendency to bars. 
Length 12*5 inches, tail 6*5, wing 7*2 to 8^ tarsus 2, bill from gape '9. 
The female is larger than the male : length 14 inches^ tail 7, wing 8*5. 
This bird is hardly more than a race of A. badius of India. It differs 
in being rather larger, in wanting the rufous on the nape^ in being of a 
purer grey^ in wanting the throat-stripe in the adult^ and in having the 
rufous bands below broader. 
Hume^s Goshawk is found over the whole province in greater or less 
abundance. 
It extends north as far as Cachar^ it is met with in China^ Siam and 
Cochin China, and it probably ranges some distance down the Malay 
peninsula. Mr. Gurney mentions (/. c.) a bird from Ceylon as belonging 
to this race ; but some mistake must underlie this statement. 
This Goshawk is found in well-wooded parts of the country and feeds on 
insects and small reptiles, Capt. Bingham found the nest in Tenasserim 
in April ; it was made of sticks and placed in the branch of a large tree^ 
and it contained three eggs^ which were pale bluish white. 
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