362 FALCONIDjE. 



brown streaks. There are three pale cross-bands on the tail, that 

 in front the narrowest. In a very large series now in the British 

 Museum, not one has white underparts like the young of S. cheela. 



Bill pale horny, bluish horny, or fleshy, darker on the culmen ; 

 cere, lores, and orbital region bright or lemon yellow ; irides bright 

 yellow ; feet and legs yellow (Hume). 



Length about 22 ; tail 9-25 ; wing 14 ; tarsus 3-25 ; bill from 

 gape 1-6. 



Distribution. The Andaman Islands ; there is also one specimen 

 in the British Museum from the Nicobars. 



Genus BUTASTUR, Hodgson, 1843. 



This is a genus that was at one time placed amongst the 

 Buzzards, but, despite some resemblance in habits, the differences 

 in the characters of the tarsus and in the eggs show that the 

 alliance is not real. In the two characters named, the members 

 of the present genus, or Buzzard-Eagles, as they have been termed, 

 come nearest to Circaetus, from which, however, they differ in size 

 and plumage, shape of wing, and proportions of toes. 



In Butastur (Poliornis of Kaup) the size is small, scarcely ex- 

 ceeding that of a Crow. The bill is compressed and the culmen 

 curved from the base; the commissure generally has a festoon, 

 sometimes a well-marked one ; the nostrils are oval and oblique. 

 The wings are long, reaching nearly to the end of the tail, which 

 is slightly rounded ; the 3rd quill is longest, the 4th nearly equal 

 to it, the 2nd and 5th considerably shorter and not very different 

 in length, the first four emarginate inside. Tarsus naked, without 

 transverse shields, covered with imbricate scales that are rather 

 larger in front ; toes short. There is no difference in size between 

 the sexes. 



Tour species are known, one of which is African, the other three 

 occur in India or Burma. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Tail more or less rufous, with narrow dark cross- 



bars or none. 



a'. Quills chiefly brown above J5. teesa, p. 362. 



V. Quills chiefly rufous above B. liventer, p. 364. 



b. Tail not tinged with rufous, and with broad dark 



cross-bands broader than the interspaces in 



adults B. indicus, p. 365. 



1220. Butastur teesa. The White-eyed Buzzard-Eagle. 



Circa teesa, Franklin, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 115. 

 Astur hyder, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1832, p. 79. 



Buteo teesa, J. E. Gray in Hardw. III. 2nd. Zool. ii, pi. 30 ; Jerdon, 

 Madr. Jour. L. S. x, p. 76. 



