WHITE-TAILED HAWK. 
25 
circles at a moderate elevation, and such was its vigilance, that 
the greater part of a day was spent in attempting to get within 
gun-shot. 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, Temminck’s plate representing the young female 
only; and even the figures of the African analogue in Le Vaillant’s 
work 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 he 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 institution which has risen up with such wonderful 
rapidity. We are also informed, that it is an inhabitant of India, 
which is rendered 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 
