spiLOENis. 357 



China, and all over India in suitable tracts from the base of the 

 Himalayas and from Sind to Lower Bengal, but not in Ceylon 

 nor the countries east of the Bay of Bengal. A resident species. 



Habits, SiX. The Short-toed Eagle is chiefly found in open 

 country and cultivated ground, and is sometimes seen perched on 

 a tree, but more frequently circling in the air or beating over the 

 ground and bushes like a Harrier. Both Jerdon and Hume notice 

 its habit of hovering like a Kestrel, and dropping softly on its 

 prey, not with a rush. It feeds chiefly on snakes, lizards, and 

 frogs, but \\\\\ eat rats, crabs, or large insects. It breeds on trees 

 (very rarely on cliffs), and lays a single egg between January and 

 May, in a loosely constructed nest of sticks, sometimes lined with 

 grass or green leaves. The egg is a broad oval, bluish white, 

 without spots, and measures about 2*9 by 2-3. 



Genus SPILORNIS, G. K. Gray, 1840. 



This genus is distinguished from Circaetus by having a broad 

 nuchal crest covering the whole nape, and by peculiar coloration, 

 brown above and below in adults, with numerous rounded white 

 spots or ocelli on the lower parts. The bill is rather elongate 

 and weU hooked at the end, the festoon on the edge of the upper 

 mandible small or wanting; nostrils oval, oblique; lores nearly 

 naked. The wings are short and rounded, the 4th or 5th quill 

 longest ; tarsus, toes, and claws as in Circaetus. 



Spilornis ranges throughout the Oriental region and comprises 

 6 or 7 species, of which three are found within our limits. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Pale wing-bar near tips of quills broader than 

 adjoining dark interspace. 

 a'. Dark brown on back, with metallic gloss; 



■wing 15-21 S. cheela, p. 357. 



h'. Earthy brown on back, little or no gloss ; 



wino- 11-12 S. minimus, p. 361. 



h. Last pale wing-bar narrower than dark inter- 

 space in front of it S. elyini, p. 361. 



1217. Spilornis cheela. The Crested Serpent-Eagle. 



Falco cheela, Latham, Ind. Orn. i, p. 14 (1790). 



Hfematornis undulatus, Vic/ors, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 170. 



Circfeetus nipalensis, Hodgson, As. lies, xviii, pt. 2, pi. p. 17 (1833). 



Hfematornis cheela, £li/th, J. A. S. B. xiv, p. 180; id. Cat. p. 19; 

 Horsf. 8i- M. Cat. i, p. 50 ; Layard, A. M. N. H. (2) xii, p. 99. 



Spilornis cheela, Jerdon, B. I. i, p. 77 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 242 ; 

 Hume, Rough Notes, p. 222; Oodio.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xxxix, 

 pt. 2, p. 93 ; A. Anderson, P. Z. 8. 1872, p. 77 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. 

 1, p. 287 ; Blyth ^ Wald. Birds Burm. p. 60 ; Hume ^- Oates, 

 S. F. iii, p. 28 ; Fairbank, S. F. iv, p. 253 ; Wardlaw Ramsay, Ibis, 

 1877, p. 454 ; Blanford, S. F. v, p. 245 ; Hume, Cat. no. 39 ; Scully, 

 S. F. viii, p. 224; Vidal, S. F. ix, p. 31 ; Reid, S. F. x, p. 8 ; 

 Davidson, ibid. p. 288 ; Davison, ibid. p. 336 ; C. H. T. Marshall, 



