Birds of Ganihla 
30 
" Biram-pfito," hwl the more gieneral name " Selingv) " is also 
often appliod to tlioiu. Above the plumage is blue g:rey, darker 
on the wings and tail, which arc barred with a darker browner 
grey. Below, c" in, white, throat white streaked with grey, sides 
of neck mottled l)r()wn and grey, the rest of under surface mottled 
brown and while, except the vent and under tail-coverts which 
are pure whitef. Iris red-hazel, beak black, cere yellow with 
blackish edges, h'gs dull orange, feet darker. Length 12i inches. 
Accipiler melanoJcucus. PIED SPARROWHAWK. 
Eanffc. Ti'opical Africa, Cape Verde Islands. (H.L.) 
I have once or twice (always just before the rains, in May 
or June) seen a large black Hawk with white belly and under- 
wing, and a white-barred tail, which I believe to be this species. 
They are rather Ini-ger and much more stoutly built than a Pere- 
grine and are always seen in pairs. 
Circus macrus. PALLID HARRIER. 
Range. Eastern Europe and temperate Asia. India, China, 
and Africa in winter. (H.L.) 
Harriers, generally in pairs, one grey (the male), the other 
brown (the female), flying low and quartering the dry swamps, are 
a common sight here. Most of them are probably this species, in 
which the male (17.5 inches long) is grey above and white to 
pale grey below, and the female (larger, 19 inches) brown above 
except on the rump., which is nearly white, and below bufTy white 
streaked with dark brown. 
Poh/horoides tijpicus. HARRIER-HAWK. 
Range. Tropical Africa. (H.L.) 
This bird, is, I think, only an occasional visitor to the Gam- 
bia. It liaunts the large swamps — dry except in places for the 
greater part of the year — but insteaxl of sweeping boldly backwards 
and forwards across the open like the Harriers, it prefers their 
tree-dottec borders, where it wheels in and out among the trees, 
generally close to the ground and resting at intervals on some 
branch or hillock. The only specimen I have handled was obtained 
by Captain Stanley, the Commissioner of the Upper River, and 
when shot was hanging with outspread wings on to the vertical 
trunk of a tree, exactly as described in Stark and Sclater's " Birds 
of South Africa." 
In this species the sexes are alike, though the female is 
the larger. Nearly the whole plumage is grey marked with black, 
the exception being the tail, which is black banded with mottled 
black and white above, and entirely pure white below, and the 
belly which is barred with black and white. The length of the 
male is 25.5 inches, of the female 29. Iris blackish brown; 
bill black, paler at base; cere, bare skin round the eye and legs 
yellow. (Birds of Soutli Africa, Vol. Ill, p. .380). Captain Stanley's 
specimen agreed in every particular with the description given 
