202 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



more or less, interrupted at the shaft by the brown hue of the 

 rest of the feather, which "division varies from an exceedingly 

 fine margin on each side of the dark shaft, to a broad space 

 equal, even in adults, to about fV of an inch. The bars are, 

 moreover, irregular, and in many instances do not exactly 

 oppose one another, while in others they take the form of 

 mere bar -like spots, not reaching to the shaft or margin of 

 the web. The brown hue of the feather is uniform through- 

 out, being no darker at the margin of the white band than 

 elsewhere. In contradistinction to these features, the Ceylon 

 bird is marked from the chest downwards with broad, com- 

 plete, parallel-edged, white bands, with which the shaft is 

 concolorous; in addition to which the brown portion of the 

 feather is not uniform, but has a darker margin bordering the 

 bands. The complete band exists in a young bird from 

 Haputale in the Norwich Museum, although the only fea- 

 thers which are barred at all are a few at the sides of the 

 breast. The bars, in adults, are continued higher up the 

 breast than in any Indian specimens I have seen; and the 

 chest-feathers are very deeply indented with white at the 

 margins, with the brown portions paler than those of the 

 pectoral barred feathers. A further distinctive point in the 

 Ceylonese bird is the large foot, with its gigantic claws, that 

 of the inner toe being equal to the average hind claw in most 

 Nepaul specimens. 



I subjoin the following table of measurements, which may 

 be of interest, and which is the result of an examination of a 

 series of these Eagles in the British, India, and Norwich 

 Museums, showing the relative size of wing and hind claw 

 as compared with the same in the island race, which I pro- 

 pose to distinguish as Spizaetus kelaarti, after its discoverer 

 in Ceylon. The list, it will be observed, includes an example 

 from Japan, in the Norwich Museum, and which was referred 

 to lately by Mr. Gurney in his article on the genus (Ibis, 

 1877, p. 431). 



