80 



below ; chest darker and warmer brown, 

 uniform in oldest birds * ; white spots below 

 similar ; tail more often with median pale 

 band nearer apical end and narrower, with 

 remains of a second basal one, the terminal 

 black band about 2 in. wide ; primaries below 

 usually showing 2 distinct black median 

 bands ; the terminal one narrower and often 

 broken ; under wing-coveits rufous brown 

 spotted with white, the greater ones ashy. 

 217a. Spilornis cheela albidus (Temm.), PI. Col., i., 

 pi. 19 (1824). [Ex Cuv., Pondicherry, tyj^e 

 in Paris Mus.] 

 Lesser Serpent -Eagle. 



E., C. & S. 

 India, from 

 Assam to 

 Tr a vane ore. 



217b. 



Slightly smaller, and wings shoiter ; wing(^ 

 14.60-14.75 in. ; throat and cheeks and ear- 

 coverts ashy brown ; tail as in S. c. albidus ; 

 chest and upper breast always uniform darker 

 brown in adults ; primaries below with only 

 one blackish median band. 



Spilornis cheela spilogaster Blyth, Jnl. As. Ceylon. 

 Soc. Beng., xxi., p. 351 (1852). [Cei/lon.] 

 Ceylon Serpent -Eagle. 



3, ^_z^/o /Wing c? 17-18 in.; ? 17.25-18.25 in.f 



/ J B Tt> ^ 'oiarger and much paler above and below ; Avith 



the hind cheeks and ear -coverts ashy ; 



thioat as pale as chest, but tinged with ashy 



and, like chest, finely verniiculated ; white 



* Vermiciilated in less old birds, which are miich lighter below ; in 

 considermg this difficult group it should always be remembered that these 

 birds certainly darken with age. Temminck described alhid'W^ from a quite 

 juvenile bird, biiffish white below with streaks and spots of dark brown. 

 The dark uniform chest is a sign of age like the single pale tail band, but the 

 typical S. c. cheela is a pale race and does not usually acquire the uniform 

 chest ; although it always gets the single tail band. As we get away from the 

 typical race these characters vary, albidus generally getting the uniform chest, 

 but not often being found with the purely black tail and single band. The 

 northern forms are the largest and the southern smallest and more variable 

 in the characters mentioned ; also often, but not always, the darkest. The 

 moult is from the pale juvenile plumage straight into the brown -ander parts 

 with vermiciilated chest and white spotted imder parts, although the 

 brown comes out in tlie form of bars towards the vent gradually dividing the 

 white interspaces first into partial bars and then rounding them off into spots. 

 The vermiculations in some forms are lost later as the chest darkens and 

 becomes uniform. 



•j- Measurement of a skin from vShan States in coll. Brit. Mus. Burmese 

 birds vary considerably in size, bvxt it is impossible to place these large birds 

 with S. c. rutherfordi from Hainan, especially as the throat is different. 



