Genus — U R 0 S P I Z A . 
Urospiza Kaup, Mus. Senckenb., Vol. III., p. 259, 
1845 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Type U. fasciata. 
Also spelt — 
Urospizia Kaup, Isis 1848, p. 772. 
Vraapiza, id., Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1867, p. 175. 
Urospizias Sundevall, Meth. Nat. Av. Disp. Tent., p. 107 note, 1872. 
Small Aquiline birds with short bills, short wings, long tails, and long legs 
and medium-sized feet. 
The genus agrees structurally very closely with the preceding, but the 
bill is smaller and the upper mandible has the culmen ridge less deeply 
curved and the cutting edges less sinuated : the cere is also smaller. 
The wing has the first primary short, the third and fourth sub-equal and 
longest ; the second longer than the sixth. The legs are longer and more 
slender, the feet weaker. In the adult the front of the tarsus shows an 
undivided plate, as does the back ; but in the immature the transverse 
scutes of the front and the hexagonal reticulations of the back are clearly 
seen, fusion taking place with age. 
In coloration this genus differs absolutely from the preceding, the 
immature contrasting vividly with the adult, whereas in Leucospiza the adult 
plumage is more or less seen in the bird as it leaves the nest. 
On account of its coloration this bird and its congeners have commonly 
been classed in Accipiter by authors who admit the two genera Astur and 
Accipiter. Other workers have usually included it in Astur. 
Gurney first considered Urospiza — or as he called it Urospizias (more 
correctly) — as a subgenus under Astur^ and then, when he had more fully 
studied the group, raised it to generic rank. 
The following cut of the feet of three genera will show the generic 
characters. 
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