AQUILINE. 75 



Museum of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta. The original specimen 

 described by De Sparre came from the Himalayas. 



Other species of this genus are L. caligatus, Horsf., of which 

 Blyth's Spiz. alboniger is a younger state. This is a very beautiful, 

 small, but tj-pical species, approaching Sp. Kienerii. A dark race 

 from Malacca, of an uniform dusky black color, exists in the Museum 

 of the Asiatic Society, resembling the dark state of liinncetus, but 

 with a stronger bill. 



Major Pearse informs me that one of these crested Eagles is 

 very rarely procured from the N. W. Himalayas, and trained for 

 hunting, and is known as the ShaJi-baz, as indeed L. cristatellus 

 was called by Meer shikars in the South. He had one himself, 

 which died just as its education was finished. 



Various crested Eagles are found both in Africa and South 

 America, but they belong to slightly different types. A crested Eagle 

 from Africa, in the Museum of the Asiatic Society, has the bill 

 straighter, longer, and more feeble, the lateral toes nearly equal, 

 and the feet altogether much weaker, and certainly belono-s to a 

 different genus, Lophaetus, Kaup. The American Crested Eao-les 

 are placed by Gray in two genera, Spizaetus, and Pternnra, Kaup, 

 The genus Morphnus, often placed among these Hawk-Eagles, has 

 the toes very feeble ; and I do not think that it enters this division. 



The remaining Eagles differ from the foregoing ones in not havino- 

 the tarsus feathered. There are two very distinct forms, -the 

 Serpent Eagles, and the Sea Eagles^ 



4tli. — Serpent Eagles. 



Gen. CiRCAETUS, Vieillot. 



Char. — Bill rather short, gently curving from the base, much 

 hooked at the tip, culmen rounded, compressed at the sides, com- 

 missure nearly straight ; nostrils oval, oblique ; wings long, the 3rd 

 longest, or 2nd and 3rd sub-equal, 4th nearly as long ; the first 

 three quills emarginate ; tail long, nearly even ; tarsi long, plumed 

 below the heel, clad with small hexagonal scales ; feet small, toes 



