1018 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



and lower parts with whitish shaft stripes. The 

 quills are barred and the basal portion of the tail 

 mottled brown and white." (Blanford.) 



" Bill dark brown, basal two-thirds of lower man- 

 dible bright plumbeous ; cere and iris brown ; legs 

 and feet china white ; claws black. (Gates.) 

 clear yellow, sometimes tinged with reddish 

 mottled with brown." (Legge.) 



Iris 

 and 



Measurements. 

 Habits, etc. 



'' Length about 29 ; tail 11 



19 : tarsus 



bill from gape 2, Males rather smaller." 



These Fishing Eagles are recorded in the Fauna 

 of British India as being found " throughout the 

 greater part of the Peninsula of India in suitable 

 localities, from the base of the Himalayas, but not 

 west of Delhi, nor in Sind, and rare to the south- 

 ward " I cannot remember ever having got 



one in the Punjab nor can I find any record of one 

 having been so found in the B. N. H. Society's 

 Journal. 



Every specimen I have, so far, shot or captured, 

 has turned out to be the next species, viz., P. 

 huniilis, but as there is no reason why they should 

 not occur in the Province, I have included the 

 species, provisionally, and described it in the event 

 of one being met with. 



Their habits and eggs seem to be very similar 

 to the ne^t species, but though the bird is bigger 

 than P. humilis it appears to lay a smaller egg. 



No. 1227. Polioaetus humilis. Hodgson's Fishing-Eagle. 



Characteristics. 



Colouration, 



Size medium, wing about 18 ; Tarsi feathered for 

 about one-third of its length, scutellate behind and 

 in front and reticullated on the sides. Claws 

 rounded beneath. Middle-tail feather s brown through- 

 out, the remainder, for the basal three-fourths, 

 mottled, terminal 2 to 3 inches dark brown. 



Head and neck all round ashy grey, browner on 

 the nape and crown. Sometimes a few brown fea- 

 thers scattered about all over the head. 



Upper parts generally dark brown, quills blackish. 

 Breast ashy brown, darker in some specimens than 

 in others. Abdomen, flanks and under tail-coverts 

 white. The two middle rectrices brown throughout 

 but the remaining tail feathers mottled white and 

 brown for about f of their length, and dark brown 

 for the terminal fourth, with a thin margin of white 

 or buff to the tips. Under parts of tail lighter than 

 the upper. 



" Young birds are paler brown ; they want the 

 grey on the head, and the breast feathers have white 

 shafts and ends." (Blanford.) 



" Upper mandible blue-black ; cere, gape and 

 lower mandible leaden blue ; irides bright yellow ; 

 legs and feet white, washed with leaden blue ; claws 

 black." (A. Anderson.) 



