44 FALCONID^E. 



Adult Male. Above dark brown with a purplish gloss ; the wing coverts 

 rather paler, especially on their margins ; head rather more ashy brown ; the 

 forehead, lores, sides of face, and chin whitish with narrow hair-like lines of 

 black, a streak of which overhangs the eyebrow. Cheeks, hinder ear coverts, 

 and sides of the neck brown. Under surface of body white ; the throat 

 narrowly streaked with brown, and with a distinct central dark shaft stripe ; 

 chest white, streaked with brown ; flanks barred brown at wide intervals, the 

 bars disappearing on the thighs and under tail coverts, which are almost 

 entirely white ; under tail coverts and auxiliaries white with irregular spots or 

 bars of brown. Quills black ; secondaries browner, the outer ones glossed 

 with purplish and narrowly tipped with white. Inner lining of quills white, 

 excepting the tips and inner margins of primaries, which are deep brown ; 

 secondaries barred with dark brown, the subterminal band broad. Some of 

 the upper tail coverts notched externally and tipped with white. Tail brown, 

 tipped with white and crossed with three dark or blackish brown bars. Cere 

 whitish, tinged bluish grey. Bill pale bluish grey at base, blackish horny at 

 tip. Iris bright or orange yellow. 



. Male 2.6 inches; culmen 2-15 ; wing 19*65 ; tail ir$ ; tarsus 37. 



Adult Female. Larger. Length 31 inches; wing 21*3 ; tail 12-5 ; tarsus 4. 



Hob. Sind > Punjab, N.-W. Provinces, Bengal, the Concans, Deccan, 

 Kutch, Kattiawar, Behar, Nepal, and Rajputana. Said to be found through- 

 out the Indian Peninsula and all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, 

 extending into South-Eastern Europe. Breeds in Upper India (Gurhwal, 

 Etawah, Hume) ; also in Palestine (Tristram) during January, February, 

 March, April and May on high trees. Hume (Rough Notes) says, that from 

 between forty and fifty nests, taken by himself and friends, never more than a 

 single egg was obtained from any one. The eggs are typically broad ovals, 

 with a slightly pyriform tendency, of a bluish white colour and invariably 

 spotless. Mr. Tristram, in his Ornithology of Palestine (Ibis, 1865), remarks 

 that of the eggs he took at Carmel and Heshbon, east of the Dead Sea> one 

 was prettily spotted and the others were w:hite. 



Gen. Spilornis, Gray. Haematornis, Vigors. 



Bill straightened at the base ; wings short ; head crested, crest feathers 

 rounded. Other characters as in Circaetus. 



41. Spilornis Cheela, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 14 ; Bp. Consp. i. p. 17 ; 

 Strickl. Orn. Syn. p. 17; Jerd. Birds of Ind. i. p. 77, No. 39 ; Hume, Rough 

 Notes, i. p. 222; Hume, S. F.i.p. 306; Sharpe, Cat. Ace. p. 287 ; Murray, 

 Hdbk. Zool. fyc. Sind, p. no; id. Vert. Zool. Sind, p. So. Circaetus cheela, 

 Gray, Cat. Ace. p. 18. The CRESTED SERPENT-EAGLE. 



