AQUILA. 341 



lower back and rump pale brown, with dark edges to the feathers ; 

 upper tail-coverts whitish ; tail black, grey, or mottled towards 

 the end and pale-tipped ; lower plumage with light brown shaft- 

 stripes varying in breadth and tint ; vent and lower tail-coverts 

 buff. Some birds are pale brown beneath. 



Bill bluish grey, dusky at tip ; cere, gape, and feet orange-yellow. 

 Irides brown (Hume). Nostrils round and large ; plumage soft. 



Length of a male about 26 inches ; tail 10-5 ; wing 19'5 ; 

 tarsus 4 ; bill from gape 2-5 : of a female length 27'5 ; tail 11-5 ; 

 wing 2O5. 



Distribution. Throughout the greater part of the Palaearctic 

 region. Common throughout India and Northern Burma in damp 

 tracts near water ; not found in Ceylon, and rare in Tenasserim. 



Habits, $c. A sluggish bird, living chiefly on frogs in India, but 

 occasionally preying on small mammals, lizards, &c. It breeds on 

 trees from April to June in Northern India, and as far south as 

 the Tapti, and appears to lay a single greyish-white egg, profusely 

 spotted and blotched with yellowish brown, and measuring about 

 2*65 by 1*98. Elsewhere two to three eggs are said to be laid. 



1206. Aquila hastata. The Small Indian Spotted Eagle. 



Morphnus hastatus, Less. Toy. Belanger, p. 217 (1834). 



Lhnnaetus unicolor, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xh, p. 128 (1843). 



Spizaetus punctatus, Jerdon, Madr. Jour. L. S. xiii, p. 164 (1844). 



Aquila hastata, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xv, p. 7 ; id. Cat. p. 27 ; Jerdon, 

 B. I. i, p. 62 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1866, p. 241 ; Hume, Rough Notes, 

 p. 180 ; Godio.-Aust. J. A. S. B. xxxix, pt. 2, p. 265 ; Jerdon, 

 Ibis, 1871, p. 245; A. Anderson, P. Z. S. 1872, pp. 69, 622 ; 1875, 

 p. 23, pi. iii ; id. Ibis, 1875, p. 199 ; Brooks, S. F. i, pp. 293, 327; 

 id. J. A. S. B. xliii, pt. 2, p. 240; Sharpe (A. maculatSB subsp.}, 

 Cat. B. M. i, p. 248; Ball, S. F. ii, p. 378; vii, p. 198; Gurney, 

 Ibis, 1877, p. 329; Cripps, S. F. vii, p. 244; Hume, Cat. no. 30; 

 Reid, S. F. x, p. 450 ; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 188 ; id. in Hume's 

 N. 8f E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 136 ; Hume, S. F. xi, p. 9 ; Davidson, Jour. 

 Bom. N. H. Soc. iii, p. 213. 



Spizaetus hastatus, Horsf. fy M. Cat. i, p. 34. 



Aquila fusca, Blyth, Birds Burm. p. 63 ; nee Gray. 



Jiyadar, Gutimar, Phari-tisa, H. 



Coloration. Adult. Very dark brown, often with a purple gloss ; 

 lanceolate feathers of crown and nape often pale-tipped, but 

 with dark rather than pale shaft-stripes ; feathers of back, rump, 

 wing-coverts, and breast also with rather darker shafts in general ; 

 primaries black; tail-feathers dark brown, often with traces of 

 narrow bars. 



Young birds have small buff or whitish spots on the nape, upper 

 back, and smaller coverts, a few larger white spots on the median 

 coverts, and there are narrow white tips to the larger coverts ; 

 the secondaries and tail-feathers are rather closely barred with 

 grey ; upper tail-coverts barred white and light brown ; the breast 

 .and sometimes the abdomen, thigh-coverts, and lower wing-coverts 



