with pale tips. Tail deep-brown, with pale hands and, tip. Ins
brown-yellow.
Fig. Levaill, Ois. d’ Afr. i. pi. 23.
13. C ircus s r u g in o su s . Marsh Harrier.
The Marsh Harrier of Europe has only recently been identified as
an inhabitant of South Africa, and is doubtless only an occasional
visitant. A single specimen was procured by Mr. Ayres at Potchef-
stroom in the Transvaal in December, 1869. On the western coast,
however, it has twice been procured by Señor Anchieta, at Huilla
and on the Rio Coroca in the Mossamedes district. I may add that
the late M. Jules Verreaux told us that it- had occurred to him at
the Cape during his fifteen years sojourn there.
Young.-—Nearly uniform chocolate brown, the feathers of the
upper surface washed with rufous on their margins ; tb© upper tail-
coverts and under surface more decidedly rufous-brown; crown of
head, throat, and cheeks more or < less entirely creamy buff, the
feathers of the hinder neck, wing-coverts, and centre of breast often
showing margins of this colour, giving a streaked appearance and
indicating approaching adolescence; wings brown, the primaries
much darker; tail uniform brown, very slightly mottled with rufous.
Adult male.—Above dark brown, with slight remains of rufous
margins to the feathers of the upper surface, the least wing-coverts
buffy white with dark brown centres ; outer greater coverts, primary
coverts, and secondaries bluish-ashy, with very slight white tips'; the
innermost secondaries brown, more or less washed with ashy-grey ;
primaries blackish-brown, much paler at the tips, creamy-white at
base of inner web, increasing in extent towards the secondaries,
which are entirely light-ashy below; upper tail-coverts white, somewhat
washed with grey and tinged with rufous ; tail uniform bluish
ash-colour, paler and a little more fulvescent beneath; entire head
and neck creamy-buff, streaked with dark brown, the interscapulary
region also slightly streaked; facial ruff indistinct, being coloured
like the rest of the head and neck; sides of face and throat white
-with narrow streaks of dark brown, the hinder margin of ear-
coverts nearly uniform brown; under surface of body creamy buff,
the breast longitudinally streaked with brown; the abdomen and
thighs more decidedly rufescent, but appearing partially streaked by
reason of the fulvous margins to the feathers; under wing-coverts
and axillaries uniform buffy white, the latter with a narrow longitudinal
shaft-line of brown; cere greenish yellow; bill blackish;
feet yellow; claws black; iris straw-yellow in adult male; dark
yellowish-brown in female and immature male. Total length 22-5
inches; culmen l -55; wing 16; tail 10; tarsus 3'4. (Sharpe, Cat.
B. i. p. 69.)
Adult female.—Slightly larger than male. Total length 23 inches;
wing 17 ; tail 11; tarsus 3-8.
Fig. Gould, B. Great Brit. pt. xiii.
14. M e l iera x canorus. Chanting Goshawk.
Melierax musicus, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 31 (1867).
This is also a species whose range is at present confined within the
limits of this work. It is generally distributed over the colony, being
very abundant in the Karroo; but it does not occur in the Knysna
according to Victorin, nor have we received any notiee from Mr.
Rickard of its capture near East London or the adjacent parts. Mr.
Atmore’s recent collections wf&r Eland’s Post did not embrace an
example. Writing in 1868 Mr. Gurney observes:—“ The geographical
range of this strietly southern bird is singularly limited.
I have never seen it from any locality north of the Tropic of Capricorn.
Mr. Ayres has not met with this species in Natal, but he
obtained it in the bush country on the Limpopo River, where it is
very numerous.” Neither Dr. Kirk nor the late Dr. Dickerson
appear to have met with the species in the Zambesi district, and it
is doubtless replaced along the Eastern coast of Africa by M. poliop-
terus of Cabanis.
Mr. Andersson says that it is “ common in Damara and Great
Namaqua Land, where it is seen throughout the year: it is particularly
abundant about Walv'isch Bay, and is usually found in open
country.” Señor Anchieta has likewise procured it at Caconda in
the Mossamedes district.
It devours quails, partridges, and other small game, reptiles, and
locusts; builds either in the fork of a tree or a thick bush. The eggs
are four, oval, and white; axis, 2” 4 '" ; diam., 1" 9"'. Mr. Henry
Buckley informs us that examples in his collection vary from 2'03 X
1'7 inches, to 2T5 x 1'6 and are of a blueish white colour. Mr. H.
Jackson says they never lay more than three eggs and generally
c
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