THE CRESTED SERPENT-EAGLE. 193 



streaked with dark brown ; there are five very dark bars on the tail, the 

 last one about one and a half inches broad, and all the feathers are tipped 

 with white ; the upper plumage and scapulars are dark glossy brown. 



"Adult. Above and below deep chocolate- brown, inclining to blackish 

 on the head and back, the quills and tail blackish, the shafts of the latter 

 brownish, the inner webs of the quills clear ashy; tail-feathers below ashy 

 white, brownish towards the tips, the penultimate ones with remains of 

 irregular cross markings/' (Sharpe.} 



Iris brown, turning to orange-yellow ; eyelids plumbeous ; mouth flesh- 

 colour ; bill black, the gape bluish ; cere dark brown ; feet yellowish green 

 to pale yellow ; claws black. 



Length 26 inches, tail 12, wing 15'5, tarsus 4'3, bill from gape 1'7. The 

 female is larger. 



The above descriptions of the immature birds are taken from a series of 

 specimens shot in Pegu ; the plumage of the adult, which appears to be 

 less seldom met with, from Mr. Sharpens Catalogue. 



The Changeable Hawk Eagle is generally distributed over the whole of 

 British Burmah, being more common in the northern part of Pegu than 

 elsewhere. 



It extends through the Indo-Burmese countries into India, where it is 

 found in Bengal and the Eastern Himalayas ; and it occurs in the Malay 

 peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo. 



This handsome bird frequents forests, especially those at the foot of 

 mountain -ranges. It is very abundant in the valleys near Thayetmyo, 

 where it breeds in April and M ay, making a nest of sticks near the top of 

 a high tree. 



Genus SPILORNIS, Gray. 



568. SPILORNIS CHEELA. 

 THE CRESTED SERPENT-EAGLE. 



Falco cheela, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 14. Haematornis undulatus, Vigors, P. Z. S. 

 1831, p. 170. Spilornis cheela, Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 77 ; Hume, Rough Notes, i. 

 p. -22-2 ; id. Nests and Eggs, p. 40 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds B. Mus. i. p. 287 ; Hume, 

 S. F. iii. p. 28 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 60 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 21 ; Wardlaw 

 Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 4o4; Gurnet/, Ibis, 1878, p. 89; Huine $ Dav. S. F. vi. 

 p. 14 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 82. Spilornis undulatus, Oates, S. F. x. p. 179. 



Description. Male and female. Upper head aud crest deep black; the 

 bases of the feathers white and showing up conspicuously, the tips of 

 some mottled with fulvous ; plumage above hair-brown ; the upper wing- 



VOL. II. O 



