THE BOOTED HAWK EAGLE. 189 



Genus NISAETUS, Hodgs. 



564. NISAETUS PENNATUS. 

 THE BOOTED HAWK EAGLE. 



Falco pennatus, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 272. Aquila pennata, Jerd. B. Ind. i. 

 p. 62; Dresser, Bird* Em: v. p. 481, pi. Hieraetus pennatus, Hmne, Rough 

 Notes, p. 182 ; id. fast* and Eggs, p. 32 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 63 ; Gurnet/, Ibis, 

 1877, p. 419 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi. p. 11 ; Hume, 8. F. viii. p. 82 ; Oates, S. F. 

 x. p. 179. Nisaetus pennatus, Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. i. p. 253; Hume, 

 S. F. iii. p. 25 ; Leyyc, Birds Ceylon, p. 40. 



Description. Adult female. Above brown, the scapulars with a pur- 

 plish shade, some of the highest plumes of the latter pure white, forming a 

 shoulder-patch, the lowest broadly bordered with buffy white, as also are 

 all the wing-coverts ; lesser and median coverts slightly shaded with pale 

 fawn-colour, the greater ones purplish brown, with a broad edging of buffy 

 white; quills blackish, secondaries purplish brown, terminally margined 

 with buffy white, the innermost very pale whity brown ; lower surface of 

 quills dark brown, inclining to ashy white near base of inner web, the 

 secondaries indistinctly barred with dull whitish ; lower back and rump 

 dark purplish brown ; the upper tail-coverts dull fawn-brown, shading into 

 buffy white on their margins and tips ; tail dull sepia-brown, slightly 

 shaded with ashy and tipped with dull white, crossed with four or five 

 indistinct bars of darker brown, the feathers inclining to dark brown 

 towards the tips, but not forming a distinct subterminal band ; head and 

 neck fawn-colour, with lanceolate central streaks of dark brown, the cheeks 

 streaked distinctly with blackish; frontal plumes whitish; under surface 

 of body buffy white, the throat and chest inclining to dull fawn-colour, 

 the throat broadly streaked with black down the centre ; the chest also 

 streaked with dark brown, becoming narrower on the breast, and disap- 

 pearing on the abdomen, thighs and under tail-coverts ; under wing-coverts 

 white, scarcely streaked with dark brown shaft-lines, the greater ones with 

 large blackish spots ; cere and gape bright wax-yellow ; bill bluish black, 

 pale blue at base ; feet pale wax-yellow ; iris pale brown. Total length 

 24 inches, culmen T7, wing 16'5, tail 10, tarsus 2'8. 



Adult male. Smaller than the female. Total length 19 inches, wing 

 137, tail 8, tarsus 2'4. 



Young. Differs from the adult in the colour of its under surface, which 



utirely dull brown, with distinct black shaft-lines, the thighs and 



under tail-coverts a little more sandy, the tarsal feathers buffy white ; 



upper surface purplish brown, the scapulars and wing-coverts lighter than 



the back and broadly edged with whitish, the upper tail-coverts almost 



