188 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



563. AQUILA HASTATA. 



THE LONG-LEGGED EAGLE. 



Morphnus hastatus, Less. Voy. Belang. p. 217. Aquila hastata, Jerd. B. 2nd. 

 i. p. 62 ; Hume, Rough Notes, i. p. 180 ; id. Nests and Eggs, p. 31 ; Anders. 

 P. Z. S. 1872, p. 69 ; Brooks, S. F. i. p. 293 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. i. p. 248 ; 

 Brooks, S. F. iv. p. 269; Gurney, Ibis, 1877, p. 329 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 81. 

 Aquila fusca, apud Bl. B. Burm. p. 63. 



Description. Male and female. Plumage above glossy hair-brown, most 

 of the feathers tipped with white ; upper tail-coverts barred with white ; 

 quills glossy purplish black ; tail the same, obsoletely barred with dusky 

 grey and with a white tip; throat and breast unspotted brown; breast, 

 abdomen, feathers of the leg, lower wing-coverts and under tail-coverts 

 pale fawn or yellowish white, closely barred with brown; quills and 

 tail beneath grey, mottled and barred with dusky ; in some only the 

 feathers of the hind head and back of the neck are tipped white, three 

 distinct rows of spots on the wings, and the tertiaries broadly tipped with 

 white,; in others the spots are still less developed. 



Young birds are much lighter brown; the tertiaries and secondaries 

 barred and clouded with whitish and brown; the tail more distinctly 

 barred, and the lower parts from the breast streaked longitudinally with 

 fulvous- white. (Jerdon.) 



Length 23 inches, tail 9*5, wing 19, tarsus 3' 9. The female is rather 

 larger, the wing measuring about 19'5 inches and the tail 10. 



Mr. Blyth, in his Catalogue of Burmese birds, records an Eagle from 

 Arrakan under the name of A. fusca, and dentifies it with Dr. Jerdon's 

 No. 30, which is A. hastata. I have never seen a Burmese example of 

 this species, and I therefore think it advisable to quote Dr. Jerdon's 

 description of this Eagle, as it apparently refers to the bird which Mr. 

 Blyth had in mind. 



The Lesser Spotted Eagle is no doubt not uncommon in Arrakan, for 

 it is found over the greater part of the Indian peninsula. All the Spotted 

 Eagles I procured in Burmah, however, are referable to the preceding 

 species. 



A very interesting and full description of the changes of plumage of 

 this Eagle is given by the late Mr. Anderson (/. c,), but I regret that it is 

 much too long for me to quote. 



