T. C. Rickard writes :—“ In the stomach of one I found a full-grown
rat, eleven young ones, and a mouse.”
Dr. Atherstone remarks of a specimen which he had alive :—“ He
used to walk up and down the river’s bed catching frogs, and afterwards
was so mean as to kill our pet toads and lizards on our grass
plat.” Le Vaillant says they build on lofty trees, and line their
nests thickly with feathers and wool: lay two round eggs, blotched
with brownish-red.
Upper parts glossy-brown, approaching to black, darkest on
extremities of wings and tail, and lightest on the shoulders and
cheeks. Tail barred more or less faintly with white on the upper
side, the wings with black. Head crested; crest-feathers very long,
and nearly black; feathers of head minutely tipped with white.
Under parts almost black; legs feathered to the toes, and nearly
pure white; inside of quill feathers of wings and tail silvery-grey;
barred with deep-brown. Iris bright yellow. Length, 25"; wing,
16"; tail, 9"9///; length of crest, 5" 6".
Fig. Levaill, Ois. d’Afr. pi. 2.
37. A stu rinu la monogrammica. African Buzzard Eagle.
The appearance of this bird is of interest as connecting the
Avifauna of Southern Africa with that of the more northern portions
of the continent. Dr. Hartlaub has described the Angolan bird as
distinct from the ordinary form of Western Africa and in his catalogue
of the Accipitres (p. 277) the editor was inclined to recognise this
fact and separated it as Asturinula meridionalis (Hartl.), but having
recently examined a series along with Mr. Gurney, he has come to
the conclusion that the difference may be sexual, as he found a closely-
barred specimen from West Africa. We therefore extract from the
above-mentioned work a description of the Gambian bird, remarking
at the same time that A. meridionalis was separated from A. monogrammica
on account of its having the bars on the lower parts much
broader and darker, especially on the thigh feathers, and the white
band on the tail much narrower. These characters were maintained
both in the typical specimen from Angola as well as in a Zambesi
skin in Shelley’s collection.
The African Buzzard Eagle only just enters the country treated of
in the present work, and never seems to come as low as the Cape
Colony or even into Natal, as far as we know at present. Captain
Shelley possesses a Zambesi specimen, and here it would seem to be
tolerably common, as Dr. Dickerson procured four specimens, at
Quilimane, Magomero, and Chibisa: Dr. Kirk also states that it is
found m the open forests of the Shire Valley. On the western side
it has been ^hot once in Damara Land by Andersson, who obtained
a single example at Elephant Vley on the 26th of October 1859
Senor Anchieta has likewise killed it at Capangombe in the interior’
of Mossamedes.
The following description is from the British Museum Catalogue :
Admit.— Above dark slaty grey, the head and sides of the face
lighter, the wmg-coverts also a little paler grey, the edge of the wing
vrhite, with which colour the outermost of the upper primary coverts
is edged; quills blackish, all tipped, and the outermost edged, with
white, the secondaries ashy grey like the back and more broadly
tipped; all the quills white at the base of the inner web, extending
in notches for some distance up the feather; lower back and rump
blackish; the upper tail-coverts and immediate base of tail white,
forming a broad band; tail blackish, broadly tipped with white, and
having one conspicuous white band across the centre; lores and
feathers m front of the eye whitish; throat white, with a very broad
streak of black down the centre; fore neck, sides of neck, and chest
ashy grey; rest of under surface, including the flanks and axillaries,
thickly barred with white and ashy brown; under wing- and tail-
coverts white; cere, orbits, and base of lower mandible bright
cinnabar-red; bill dark leaden horn-colonr; feet vermilion; iris
umber-brown. Total length, 12 inches; culmen, M ; wing, 8-9; tail,
o*o; tarsus, 1*95.
. 4dult female.—A little larger than the male. Total length, 13-5
inches; culmen, 1-2; wing, 9‘5; tar sus, 2*1.
Fig. Swains. B. W. Afr. i., pi. 4.
38. Circa etu s c in e r e u s . Black-breasted Harrier-Eagle.
Circaetus thoracicus, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 15 (1867)
This fine Eagle is generally distributed in the Colony, although
rather rare. Mr. H. Gird, M.L.A., obtained a noble pair on his farm,
Uliphant s Eontem, which are now mounted in the Museum at Cape
iown Victoria procured it in the Karroo, and Mr. Henry Jackson
_ ays that m this locality they are always found near water and not
m the mountains. .We ourselves found it breeding at the Berg
nver and we also saw it about Grahams-town and the Kowie mouth.