179. ACCIPITER GULARIS (Temminck and Schlegel).
JAPANESE SPARROW HAWK.
- Astur (nisus) gularis Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves (1850), 5, pl. 2.
- Accipiter gularis Grant, Ibis (1896), 104; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 254; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 41.
- Accipiter virgatus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874), 1, 150 (part).
Calayan (McGregor); Cebu (McGregor); Fuga (Whitehead); Mindanao (Koch & Schadenberg). Japan, northern China; in winter to Malay Peninsula and Malay Archipelago.
Adult.—Above including wings, blackish slate, the bases of the feathers pure white with a tendency to show on the nape; ear-coverts and sides of neck slaty gray, the feathers edged with rufous; sides of face slate, lined with white; chin and throat white with blackish shaft-lines; breast and sides vinous-chestnut; abdomen and under tail-coverts white; quills blackish, inner webs white basally; secondaries and inner primaries barred with blackish; under wing-coverts and axillars pale ochraceous; tail ashy brown crossed by five bars of blackish brown, seven bars on outermost pair. Male, length, 273; wing, 190; tail, 124; culmen from base, 18; tarsus, 45; middle toe with claw, 33. Female, length, 295; wing, 205; tail, 148; culmen from base, 18; tarsus, 42; middle toe with claw, 34.
Immature.—Upper parts dark brown, most of the feathers edged with rusty or earthy brown; under parts white with wide bars of light rusty brown. This plumage is followed by one in which the under parts are white with wide shaft-streaks of blackish brown. Specimens occur with the fore breast streaked and the hind breast, sides, and flanks barred and with individual feathers both barred and streaked. The acquisition of adult plumage probably takes some time, two or three years.
The preceding descriptions are taken from birds collected in Calayan Island and while none of them shows the complete adult plumage, one specimen has the breast partly chestnut indicating the adult plumage.
Grant characterizes A. gularis as follows:
“Female adult.—Like A. nisus, being barred transversely up to the throat, which is white, with a more or less well-marked dark line down the middle, formed by the very narrow black or grayish-black shaft-stripes to the feathers. Fourth primary quill longest and considerably longer than the fifth.
“Male adult.—Throat white, the line of feathers down the middle with black shafts, forming a very narrow black central line, absent in the most adult examples. The fourth primary quill longest, and considerably longer than the fifth.”