WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 
385 
his approach, it flew in easy circles at a moderate elevation ; 
and such was its vigilance, that the greater part of a day was 
spent in attempting to get within gunshot. At length, the 
cover of interposing bushes enabled him to effect his purpose. 
It was a beautiful female, in perfect adult plumage. This sex, 
in the perfect state, is now for the first time represented. Tern- 
minck’s plate representing the young female only ; and even 
the figures of the African analogue, in Le Vaillanfs works, 
exhibit only the male in the young and adult states. As usual 
in the tribe of predaceous birds, the female is much larger than 
the male, and is therefore entitled to precedence. 
Though this species is so rare, its near relative, the black- 
winged hawk, appears, on the contrary, to be very numerous. 
In Africa, where it was first discovered, and which is probably 
its native country, it is rather a common species, and has a very 
extensive range. Le Vaillant frequently observed it on the 
eastern coast of that little known continent, from Duyven- 
Hoek to Caffraria, where, however, it is less common. The 
same traveller found it to inhabit also in the interior, in the- 
Cambdebo, and on the shores of the Swart-kop, and Sunday 
Rivers. It 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 ren- 
dered probable by a specimen from Java, in my collection. It 
is found 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 
VOL. in. ‘2 B 
