22 
ASTUE TEIVIEGATITS. 
the jungles of the Pasdun Korale and the district of Saffragam, it is doubtless resident and breeds. In the 
Peak f orests it is likewise .not uncommon. As regards its range into the mountain-zone I do not know of 
its having been found above 3500 feet. About the neighbourhood of Kandy, and at Nilambe and Deltota, it 
is frequently shot, there being in general one or two examples in Messrs. Whyte and Co.’s establishment. 
The Gor-Besra, as it is called in India, is spread over the peninsular portion of the empire, inhabiting 
the Nilghiris perhaps more commonly than other wooded regions. It does not appear to be an abundant 
species, as but few instances of its occurrence are recorded in c Stray Feathers,’ whereas frequent mention is 
made of its northern ally from the Himalayas, Nepal, Kumaon, and Assam. Our bird appears to be found in 
Pegu, as it is included in Mr. Oates’s list, and to the south-east of Burmah it seems to have a very extended 
range, inhabiting Malacca, Java, Sumatra, portions of Borneo and the Philippine Islands, together with 
Formosa. From the island of Sumatra it seems to have been first known, Cuvier giving that island as its sole 
habitat. It does not extend eastwards from Burmah towards China, which is a singular feature in its distri- 
bution, seeing that it has such an extensive south-easterly range. Pere David did not meet with it anywhere 
in the latter country ; nor did Mr. Swinhoe in all his experience on the coast of the Celestial Empire. 
Habits. This bold bird is almost entirely a denizen of the forest, in the tallest trees of which I have 
usually met with it, giving out its shrill monosyllabic scream (or, more properly speaking, whistle) as a 
call-note, perhaps, to its mate, or in defiance of the group of small birds which very frequently are found 
haranguing it at a respectful distance. In this latter respect it much resembles its smaller cousin, the Besra 
(Accipiter virgatus) ; for I have more than once found it surrounded by a host of angry White-eyebrowed and 
f orest Bulbuls*, accompanied by one or two equally energetic Kingcrows, darting and flying round in the 
highest state of excitement, while the Goshawk, with an air of injured innocence, sat stolidly on the capacious 
limb of some enormous Koombook tree, screaming at its tormentors to the utmost of its powers. This habit 
of the small birds, I must here state, carries with it some amount of injustice ; for though this hawk is 
frequently given a bad character for not respecting the life of his feathered friends, and appropriating for his 
larder sundry small chickens, pigeons, and that ilk, I have invariably found his food to consist of lizards, to 
none of which is he so partial as to the Green Calotes ( Calotes viridis). I have shot him in the forests of the 
V anni, screaming with delight over a brilliantly green Lizard which hung, pinned by his talons, to a branch 
while his stomach was crammed with just such another. Layard, in his 1 Notes on Ceylon Ornithology ’ 
says that it swoops down to the poultry-yard from “ some towering tree or butting rock, and, despite the fury 
and resistance of the faithful mother, rendered fiercer by despair, the foe generally carries off one if not two 
of her family.” 
Jerdon also remarks, in the ‘ Birds of India,’ that “it is not very rare in the Neilgherries, and occa- 
sionally commits depredations on pigeons and chickens, making a pounce on them from a considerable height. 
It generally keeps to the woods or their skirts, dashing on birds sometimes from a perch on a tree, but 
generally circling over the woods, and making a sudden pounce on any suitable prey that offers itself.” 
Layard says that they are used by native falconers in Ceylon for hunting, and mentions that he saw one 
at Anaradjapura, which had been hoodwinked by having its eyelids sewn up, “ the thread running through 
them so as to draw the edges together at pleasure.” I have seldom seen it fly any distance, nor observed it 
far away from the outskirts of woods ; but its progression from point to point in the forest is swift and 
performed with quick beatings of the wings. 
It was formerly, according to Jerdon, used for falconry in India, and was taught to strike Partridges. 
Nidification . — The nest of the Crested Goshawk does not appear to have ever been found. Mr. Hume 
has not succeeded in eliciting any information from his numerous correspondents concerning its nidification ; 
and all we know concerning its breeding is what Layard tells us— that it nests in the “ holes and crevices 
of precipitous rocks.” 
I xus luteolus and Criniger ictericus. 
