Sub-fam. 3. Accipitrinae.–First of this group may be placed six genera of "Harrier-Eagles," classed as Circaëtinae by the late J. H. Gurney,[[135]] of which Herpetotheres cachinnans, ranging from South Mexico to Bolivia and Paraguay, is the only American representative. It is a crested bird, of a brown colour above, relieved by creamy buff, which extends over the whole under surface, the nape and face being mostly black. It eats snakes, and sits aloft bobbing its head while uttering a gruff "ha-ha." Of the African genus Circaëtus one species, C. gallicus–Jean-le-blanc of the French–extends from Southern and Central Europe to Palestine, India, North China, Timor, and Flores. It is dark brown above, and white with blackish-brown streaks and bars below, the secondaries and tail having white tips, and the latter three dusky cross-bands. This sluggish but bold denizen of the plains may be seen perched on trees, quartering the ground with heavy flapping flight, or anon poising itself aloft on motionless wings, the harsh noisy cry being varied by a twittering note. Snakes form its favourite food, while frogs and fish from the shallows, small mammals, birds, lizards, crabs, and insects add to its daily fare. The bulky nest of sticks, bedded with grass or green leaves, is situated on trees, bushes, or even rocky ledges; a single bluish-white egg–or exceptionally two–being deposited. The female sits very closely, and both parents sometimes attack intruders. C. cinereus, of most of the Ethiopian Region, has the chest brownish-black and the belly white; C. fasciolatus of Natal, and the similar C. beaudouini of Senegal and North-East Africa, have the former part fulvous-brown, and the latter barred with dusky; C. cinerascens of the east and west of that continent is much greyer below, with narrower bars. Helotarsus ecaudatus of the whole Ethiopian Region is black, with maroon back and tail, and a broad grey band across the secondaries; the wide crest, short rectrices, red cere, lores and feet, rendering it most remarkable. H. leuconotus is hardly more than a creamy-backed variety. It sails aloft in powerful style, and dashes like lightning upon the snakes, mammals, and lizards, which form its prey; the nest of sticks is placed in trees or rocks, and contains, it is said, from two to four white eggs. The crested Eutriorchis of Madagascar, and Dryotriorchis of the Gold Coast, short of wing but long of tail, should probably be placed here. A fine broad crest also adorns Spilornis, of which genus some seven members occur in the Indian Region, and the Celebes group. S. undulatus (cheela), extending from India to China, has the head black and white, the remaining plumage brown, with whitish markings above, round white spots below, and a broad light band across the white-tipped tail. S. sulaënsis of the Sula Islands differs in being barred beneath; S. holospilus of the Philippines has the whole body spotted. These arboreal forms live upon snakes, frogs, insects, and birds, the last of which they hunt in pairs, converging gradually on the victim from each side: the note is mournful; the small nest of twigs, lined with grass or leaves, is placed in trees; the two eggs are rufous or white with red markings.
The slender Polyboroïdes typicus, of most of the Ethiopian Region, combines the appearance of a Harrier with that of a typical Hawk; it is grey with white tips to the black remiges and rectrices, and shews black and white bars on the lower breast and abdomen. A whitish band crosses the tail, while the naked cheeks and cere are yellow. P. radiatus of Madagascar is more silvery. Resembling the following group in habits, these birds prefer grasslands, especially when newly burnt, take comparatively short flights, and rest more frequently on trees or stumps. They are said to be able to bend the tibio-tarsal joint either way.
Circus, ranging over nearly the whole world, comprises some seventeen species, in most of which the sexes differ in coloration–an unusual fact in Raptorial forms. They are graceful and soft-plumaged, with long legs, wings, and tail, the partial facial ruff creating a likeness–superficial and not warranted by structure–to the owls. Non-arboreal and by nature shy, they may be seen hovering or circling aloft, or systematically beating over the flats with buoyant untiring flight, the pinions flapping slowly and regularly, and exposing a broad surface to the air. They can, however, move with rapidity, and approach their breeding-quarters with a fine downward sweep, an exceptionally bold cock sometimes almost striking an intruder. The cry, chiefly heard during incubation, is shrill; the food consists mainly of small mammals, but partially of birds, reptiles, fish, frogs, insects, or even eggs; the nest, placed among reeds, corn or herbage, in gorse-coverts or on heathery or grassy slopes, is, according to circumstances, a pile or layer of the surrounding vegetation lined with the finer portions, and contains from three to six bluish-white eggs, rarely blotched with rufous. Nesting-sites in trees are on record. Three species still breed in Britain, C. cyaneus, the Hen Harrier, C. cineraceus, Montagu's Harrier, and C. aeruginosus, the Marsh Harrier or Moor Buzzard. The first two are much alike and easily confounded, the female in both being brown above and buffish with dark streaks below, while the tail is crossed by five umber bars. The male, which is bluish-grey with white rump and abdomen in the Hen Harrier, but is streaked beneath with rufous in the more slender Montagu's Harrier, is commonly considered a different species from the female by rustics, who call it the "Kite." These forms range over Europe, Asia, and North Africa; but whereas the first-named reaches about lat. 69° N. in summer, and occurs from Morocco and Abyssinia to Canton in winter, its congener is not found so far north, and migrates down to Cape Colony, Ceylon, and Burma. C. aeruginosus, now nearly exterminated in Britain, extends from South Scandinavia and Archangel to Japan, and to the Transvaal and Ceylon in the cold season. The upper parts are brown with blackish primaries, the remainder of the wings and the tail being grey; the lower surface is buff with brownish stripes. Old males have the head nearly cream-coloured, while the irides in the female are rather hazel than yellow. The North American C. hudsonius is very near C. cyaneus; South America possesses C. cinereus, and, on the east, C. maculosus; C. swainsoni reaches from South-East Europe to India and China, with Africa in winter; C. ranivorus and C. maurus occupy South Africa; C. spilonotus and C. melanoleucus East Asia, the latter being coloured black, white, and grey; C. assimilis (jardinii)–marked with chestnut above, and spotted with white below–inhabits Australia and Tasmania; C. gouldi (approximans) the same countries, New Zealand, and Fiji; C. wolfi New Caledonia, C. spilothorax Papuasia, C. humbloti Madagascar, and C. maillardi (with its variety macrosceles) that island, Réunion, and Anjuan (Joanna).
Micrastur, a genus found in Central and northern South America, somewhat resembles Accipiter, being brown or blackish above, relieved by rufous or grey and white, and white or reddish below with or without cross-bars. Geranospizias ranges further south, G. caerulescens, which is slaty-blue, with a few white bands beneath, reaching South Brazil and Bolivia, while the Central American G. niger is nearly uniform black. The thighs are closely feathered, and the tibio-tarsal joint is said to act doubly. Five species of Melierax or "Singing Hawk," reside in the Ethiopian Region, especially in the south, where M. canorus is plentiful. This form is ash-coloured with black primaries, black and white tail, and white belly with greyish bars. The habits are bold, the flight is rapid, the food consists of small mammals, birds, reptiles, and locusts. The haunts are in rocky places or bush country; the nest of sticks, lined with wool and feathers, is placed in a tree, and contains from three to five whitish eggs. The mellow whistling or piping song is heard chiefly in the morning and evening, the wide-spread African Asturinula monogrammica alone of the Family vying with it in sweetness.
Astur comprises forty or more members, several of which have exact counterparts in the genus Accipiter.[[136]] The more robust build, shorter legs, and stouter toes serve as distinctions; but it must be noted that short wings, long legs, and bill without a notch mark all Accipitrine as opposed to Falconine forms. The descriptions below will be sufficient to shew the coloration, as the species, except A. novae hollandiae, are very similar. Inhabitants of the woodland and river-side, they are nearly cosmopolitan, though absent in parts of the Neotropical Region and in New Zealand; while several islands have peculiar races. A. palumbarius, the Goshawk, called of old the "Gentle Falcon," is now seldom observed in Britain, though once it nested in Scotland; it ranges throughout Europe and Asia to Morocco, and thence to the Himalayas and Japan, or slightly further south in winter. It is ashy-brown above, with four dark bands on the white-tipped tail, and is closely barred with brown and white below. Daring and rapacious, with marvellous power of steerage, it follows the abruptest turns of its victims with the greatest ease, gliding after them in a low, persistent style, termed by falconers "raking." The food consists of small mammals and birds, but A. badius and A. tachiro will eat frogs, and the latter limpets; the large flat nest of sticks, rarely lined with roots, is placed in trees, the bluish-white eggs, numbering from three to five, being occasionally marked with rust-colour. The barely separable North American A. atricapillus exhibits very close bars below; the crested A. trivirgatus, ranging from India and the Great Sunda Islands to Formosa, is slaty-grey, having a rufous chest, a white throat with black median streak, a tail with four brown bands, and white under parts barred with rufous and brown; A. badius, the Shikra, extending in its various sub-species from Central Russia, Servia, and Greece to China, and many parts of Africa, is blue-grey with five or six blackish tail-bands, a less distinct throat-streak, and salmon-coloured lower surface with narrow white cross-bars. A. trinotatus of Celebes is blackish-grey, with lighter head, white spots on the median rectrices, uniform vinous breast, white throat and vent; the young are ferruginous-red above with black markings. Most remarkable of all is A. novae hollandiae of Southern Australia and Tasmania–with its smaller race A. leucosomus of Papuasia and the Cape York district–pure white in colour, with black bill, yellow cere and red irides, which some writers consider a permanent albino of A. cinereus. A. hensti and A. franciscae are confined to Madagascar, A. brutus and A. pusillus to Mayotte and Joanna Islands of the Comoros respectively. Nisoïdes moreli, also from Madagascar, a bird with stout bill and white irides, closely approaches Astur.
Accipiter is a genus of some thirty species, which rival Goshawks in spirit and daring; they inhabit nearly the whole world, but hardly extend to Polynesia. The flight is quick and vigorous, with rapid turns; the prey being captured with a dash as the birds skim through the wooded country they frequent; while it is subsequently devoured on the ground, as is customary among Accipitrine forms. The large flat nest of twigs, occasionally lined with roots or leaves, is placed on a tree or rocky ledge; about four to six bluish-white eggs, usually with heavy blotches or spots of red-brown, being laid in the central depression. Very puzzling are the changes of plumage, though by no means confined to this genus; but the longitudinal spots below in the young are said generally to change with age to transverse bars, as is the case in the most typical Falcons.[[137]]
Fig. 40.–Nest of Sparrow-Hawk. Accipiter nisus. (From Poachers.)
The coloration is well shewn by Accipiter nisus, the Sparrow-Hawk, which breeds throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia north of the Himalayas; extending further south in winter, but represented in South Africa by A. rufiventris and A. ovampensis with white-spotted rectrices. It is bluish-grey above, with white mottlings on the nape and rufous cheeks, the white-tipped tail exhibiting from three to five dark bands, and the buffish-white under parts red-brown bars. Other species are blacker or browner, or more rufous below; A. rubricollis and A. erythrauchen of the Moluccas have the nape red; the latter, A. rhodogaster of Celebes, A. virgatus of India and East Asia (including A. nisoïdes), A. hartlaubi of the Gaboon, and A. ventralis of Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, have nearly uniform ruddy under parts; A. erythrocnemis of Brazil and Bolivia, and A. chionogaster, ranging from Guatemala to Venezuela are almost white beneath; A. bicolor of Central and South America having grey-blue for the white. A. melanoleucus of North-East, West, and South Africa is deep black, with brown bars on the rectrices, and some white on the tail-coverts and breast; A. pectoralis of Brazil is brownish-black above, slightly relieved by white, the tail being greyish with black bands, the collar and chest rufous, the fore-neck and abdomen white, streaked and barred respectively with black. A. minullus inhabits South Africa, A. madagascariensis Madagascar, A. cirrocephalus Australia, Tasmania, and Papuasia, A. chilensis Chili, A. guttatus Paraguay and Bolivia, A. pileatus Brazil, A. collaris New Granada; while the very robust A. cooperi occupies North America southwards to Mexico, and A. fuscus the same country to Panama. In A. subniger (tinus), of Central and South America, and some other species, the young are red above. Erythrotriorchis radiatus of East and Central Australia, a rufous bird with dark markings, which lays an egg like that of a Sparrow-Hawk, may perhaps be placed here, as may Megatriorchis doriae of New Guinea, in which the blackish upper parts have lighter transverse stripes, and the white under parts longitudinal dusky streaks.
Sub-fam. 4. Aquilinae.–The long-legged Morphnus guianensis, ranging from Panama to Amazonia, is black, with three ashy tail-bars, brown head and chest, and white rufous-banded abdomen; the fine crest is brown with black tip, the wing- and tail-coverts are varied with white. This bird haunts thick woods near water, and in habits appears to resemble the next two genera, which have similar soft plumage, short wings and long tails. M. taeniatus of Ecuador has broader and blacker bars below. Harpyopsis novae guineae of New Guinea, and Thrasaëtus harpyia, the Harpy, extending from Mexico, to Paraguay and Bolivia, have blackish-grey upper parts with a tendency to darker transverse markings; the tail shews six black bars; and the white under parts exhibit a greyish zone on the chest. The former species is, moreover, relieved by white above, while a bifurcated grey crest surmounts the white head and neck of the latter. Marvellous stories have been told of the fierceness and strength of the last-named, but despite its huge bill and legs, it seems never to attack man, though defending itself with spirit when wounded. Found in low-lying forests and near rivers, it may be seen wheeling in circles with slow heavy flight, or digesting its meals on low boughs of trees. The diet consists largely of mammals, including fawns, monkeys, foxes and peccaries; the nest is in high trees or cliffs. The Indians are very proud of a living specimen, while the down is used for decoration, and the feathers for arrow-making. Harpyopsis devours wallabies.