THE BIRDS OF LIBERIA 655 
Elanus caeruleus caeruleus (Desfontaines). Black-shouldered Kite 
Falco caeruleus Desfontaines Hist. (Mém.) Acad. Roy. Paris, for 1787, p. 503, 1789: near Algiers. 
A small hawk, blue-gray above, the region of the bend of the wing black; outer tail-feathers 
white; below pure white; feet feathered nearly two-thirds the distance to the toes which are 
yellow; cere yellow, culmen black, iris red. Africa, east to India and Yunnan. 
Although this wide-ranging species is found over most of Africa, it has not 
hitherto been reported from Liberia, since it probably avoids heavily-forested 
country. In eastern Liberia we secured a single adult female at Gbanga on 
September 8. Here in somewhat cleared regions it is probably of more regular 
occurrence, while still farther to the eastward beyond the high forest it is fre- 
quent.in Sierra Leone (Rotifunk) and common at Freetown on the coast accord- 
ing to Kemp (1905). 
Machaerhamphus anderssoni (Gurney). Bat-eating Falcon 
Stringonyx anderssoni Gurney, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1865, p. 618: Otjimbinque, Damaraland. 
Smallish, about 17 inches long; color in general blackish with a slightly grayish wash, bases 
of neck feathers white, throat white with blackish central streak; rump and under tail-coverts 
white, the latter with dark tips; tail narrowly tipped with white, cross-banded below; bill short and 
weak. Africa. 
Biittikofer (1889) includes this species in the list of Liberian birds on the au- 
thority of Schweitzer. It is a rare hawk of crepuscular habits, preying upon bats. 
Pernis apivorus apivorus (Linné). Honey Buzzard 
Falco apworus Linné, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 91, 1758: (Sweden). 
Length about 24 inches; head gray, rest of upper parts brown, the feathers often white-edged; 
below white, spotted, streaked or banded with brown; wing-feathers gray brown, broadly tipped 
with blackish, and a band of same across the middle of the primaries; tail brown, with whitish 
base, pale edges to the feathers, and a subterminal dark band. Winters south to Angola and Natal. 
There are two records of this more northern-breeding species, indicating 
probably that it occurs as an uncommon migrant in winter or as a winter resi- 
dent. These are: an adult male killed January 1, on the Junk River by Stampfli 
(Bittikofer, 1886, p. 247), and an adult female taken by the same collector at 
Mt. Olive (Biittikofer, 1889, p. 115). The stomach of the first specimen con- 
tained fish bones and hair. 
Stephanoaétus coronatus (Linné). Crowned Hawk-eagle 
Falco coronatus Linné, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, vol. 1, p. 124, 1766; Guinea. 
A large eagle-like species, about three feet long; above blackish, the upper tail-coverts edged 
and banded with white, sides of head and neck brown; below white, tinged with rusty and banded 
with black, the feathers of the leg speckled with same, wings banded brown and black, tail banded 
with black and grayish brown; bill black, feet and iris yellow. Gold Coast and Uganda south to 
Cape Colony. 
Under the name Spizaetus bellicosus, Bittikofer (1885, p. 152) records that a 
native hunter brought him a young bird of this species alive, that had been se- 
cured somewhere in the interior back of Robertport. The hunter had several 
times shot the species in the Gallinas country west of the Manna River. The 
only other record seems to be that of Chubb who identified as of this bird the 
