The male has the whole of the upper surface blackish brown, each feather broadly margined with rust-red; wings brown, crossed by narrow bands of darker brown; tail greyish brown, crossed by irregular bands of dark brown; shafts of the quills and tail buffy-brown; throat buff, deepening into the rich rust-red of the under surface of the shoulder and the whole of the under surface; all the feathers of the under surface with a narrow stripe of black down the centre; thighs and under tail-coverts rust-red without stripes. The female resembles her mate in colour and in the disposition of the markings, but has the striæ of the under surface broader and more conspicuous. The figures are those of a male and a female about two-thirds of the natural size. [Illustration: ASTUR APPROXIMANS _Vig. & Horsf._ _J. Gould and H. C. Richter, del^t_ _C. Hullmandel Imp._ ] ASTUR APPROXIMANS, _Vig. and Horsf._ Australian Goshawk. _Falco radiatus_, Temm. Pl. Col. 123, young. _Astur radiatus_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 181, young male. _Astur fasciatus_, Ib., adult male and female. _Astur approximans_, Ib., young female.—Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part III. _Bilbil_, Aborigines of New South Wales. Among the whole perhaps of the Australian birds, certainly among the Australian _Falconidæ_ we are presented with no species the scientific appellation of which is involved in so much confusion as is that of the present bird. This confusion has arisen from two causes: first, authors have erroneously considered it to be identical with the _Falco radiatus_ of Latham, from which it is entirely distinct; and secondly, the difference which exists between the plumage of the adult and young is so great as to have led to a false multiplication of species, and consequently of specific names. Seven specimens of this Hawk form part of the collection of the Linnean Society, and are those from which Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield took their descriptions of _Astur radiatus_, _A. fasciatus_ and _A. approximans_: on a careful examination of these specimens, I am satisfied that they are all referable to the present bird; _A. radiatus_, of which there are two specimens, being the young male; _A. fasciatus_, of which there are three specimens, the adult; one an adult male, the other two adult females; and _A. approximans_, of which there are two specimens, the young female. I have retained the term _approximans_ in preference to either of the others, because _radiatus_ actually belongs to another species, and the employment of _fasciatus_ might hereafter lead to its being confounded with the “Fasciated Falcon,” an Indian species described under that name by Dr. Latham.