1978 THE DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY 



generally avoiding thick jungle and forest. " It may often be seen sitting on a low 

 tree, when it occasionally darts on its quarry, but it generally circles in the air, 

 taking a long and lofty flight, now and then flying heavily along the ground like a 

 harrier. I have frequently seen it hover in the air like a kestrel, and drop down on 

 its prey, like a stone, afterward. It is a rather noisy bird, frequently uttering a 

 wild plaintive scream. I have seen several together occasionally, but it is usually 

 solitary. Its chief food is snakes and lizards, but it will eat anything, rats, 

 weakly birds, crabs, frogs, centipedes, and large insects. I have seen one strike at 

 a wounded hare, and it will occasionally carry off a wounded teal or duck." Ac- 

 cording to Mr. Hume, by whom this species is termed the short-toed eagle, it nests 

 in Upper India from January to March, nearly always building in trees, and laying 

 one or two eggs of a pale bluish-white color. The nest, which is formed of sticks, 

 and from two to three feet in diameter by from six inches to a foot in depth, may 

 be almost entirely devoid of lining, or so thickly coated with grass or straw that the 

 eggs look as though packed in a basket for traveling. This eagle is comparatively 

 rarely met with in the south of France, where it is known as Jean-le-Blanc, but is 

 more common in Palestine, where its nesting habits have been described by Canon 

 Tristram. Nests have been taken in France in the middle of May. 



Although the term serpent eagle is not unfrequently applied to the 

 ' -. . members of the preceding genus, as a matter of convenience it is far 



preferable to restrict it to the nearly allied species coming under the 

 generic title of Spilornis. These birds are distinguished from the harrier eagles by 

 the feathers of the crest being of greater length, and rounded, instead of lanceolate, 

 at the tip, and also by the shorter wing. The genus is mainly characteristic of India 

 and the Malayan region, although also represented in the Philippines, the south of 

 China, and Formosa. In habits these birds are more arboreal, and far less constantly 

 on the wing than the harrier eagles, darting on the snakes and other reptiles, which 

 form their food, from the boughs of trees. The serpent eagles derive their scientific 

 name from the white or pale spots which ornament the dark colored plumage of all 

 the species save one, and the name of spotted eagles would have been exceeding 

 appropriate had it not been already employed in another sense. The Indian serpent 

 eagle (S, chila) is by far the largest member of the genus, the female measuring 

 thirty inches in length, and is a decidedly handsome bird. The head is black, with 

 conspicuous white bases to the long feathers of the crest; above and below, the gen- 

 eral color is brown, with small spots on the scapulars and wing coverts, and larger 

 ones on the hinder part of the lower surface, the chest being uniform. The quills 

 have some dusky markings, and the tail is mottled with white, and crossed with 

 three bars of darker brown. Two other species share in this general type of colora- 

 tion; but in another pair the chest is rufous, one of them (S. sulaensii) having the 

 abdomen banded instead of spotted with white, while in the sixth (S. holospilus), 

 from the Philippines, the entire body is spotted. The Indian serpent eagle ranges 

 from India to China and Formosa; and in the former country is most common in 

 jungly districts, although also found in wooded places. In addition to reptiles, it 

 eats large insects and frogs, catching the latter in tanks. It nests in trees, laying 

 two white eggs marked with a few dark specks. 



