338 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
In adults the bill is horny-yellow ; cere and naked skin of 
head and neck yellow ; iris dark brown; legs dirty-yellow. 
In young birds the bill is dark, and the naked skin of the head 
and neck giay. 
Length 24; wing 18°25; tail 9°5; tarsus 3; bill from 
gape 2°4. 
Distribution.—A solitary specimen, probably a storm-driven 
straggler, was shot at Nuwara Eliya in March, 1874. The 
species is found over the greater part of India, south of the 
Himalayas, and westwards of lower Bengal. 
Habits, &c.—In India this bird is a regular town scavenger, 
living largely on human excrement and other filth. It is, 
however, also found in open country, away from human 
habitations. 
Family Fauconrp a. 
Sub-family Falconine. 
Hagles, Hawks, Falcons, &c. 
In Blanford’s classification the whole of the Eagles, Hawks, 
and Falcons found in Ceylon—some twenty-nine species—fall 
within the single sub-family Falconine, which includes birds © 
ranging in size from the Eagles to the Sparrow-Hawks and 
Falconets. They are practically all carnivorous, and the 
greater number of them feed on living prey. ‘Some of our 
smaller species are partly or wholly insectivorous, while 
others, especially the Kites, feed on carrion. 
Most of the sub-family undergo considerable changes of 
plumage between their immature and fully adult phases ; in 
consequence coloration is often a very unsafe guide for the 
differentiation of the various species. There are, however, 
noteworthy characteristics of the bill, lores, wings, and tarsi, 
which serve to divide our twenty-nine forms into small, fairly 
well-marked groups, without altering the sequence adopted 
by Blanford, or greatly disturbing the natural affinities of 
the various species. I propose, therefore, for the sake of 
simplicity, in the first place to split the sub-family into nine 
small groups, and to treat each group separately. 
In most groups the tarsus is naked behind, and only partially 
feathered in front ; the upper mandible of the bill is sharply 
