AQUILINE. 37 



of sticks and twigs. The egg, there is only one, is a broadish 

 oval, of a pale bluish-white color ; the egg lining is a peculiar 

 bright sap-green. The size of an average egg is 3 inches by 2*35, 



GENUS, Spilornis, Gray. 



Bill straightish at the base ; wings short ; head crested ; other- 

 wise as in circaetw& 



Spilornis cheela, Lath. 



39. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 78 ; Butler, Deccan, &c. ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 373 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology 

 of Sind, p. 80 ; Hume's Scrap Book, p. 222. 



THE CRESTED SERPENT EAGLE, 



<?. Length, 26 to 28 ; expanse, 58 to 63 ; wing, 18'5 to 20 ; tail, 

 12 to 13 ; tarsus, 3'9 to 4'3 ; bill from gape, 1'9. 



5 . Length, 29 to 32 ; expanse, 67*5 to 73 ; wing, 19'5 to 21 ; 

 tail, 14 to 15 ; tarsus, 415 to 4'5 ; bill from gape, 212. 



Cere and orbits deep yellow ; irides bright yellow ; legs dirty 

 yellow. 



Adult : head black, the feathers white on their basal portion, 

 and for nearly two-thirds their length, showing a conspicuous full 

 black and white crest ; above hair-brown ; shoulders and lesser 

 wing-coverts with small white spots, the quills with broad dusky 

 bands ; tail brown, mottled and clouded with white, and with 

 two broad blackish bands ; beneath chin to breast unspotted 

 brown ; thence to under tail-coverts pale brown, with whitish 

 faint bars, and white ocelli. 



The young bird has the upper plumage brown, edged with pale 

 rufous, the crest feathers having more white than the adult ; the 

 tail hoary-brown, with three broad bars ; quills brown, with 

 darker bands, and the quills and medial wing-coverts tipped 

 white ; beneath pale whity-buif ; the feathers of the breast 

 darkest, and centred with brown ; ear-coverts, and stripe beneath 

 the eyes, deep black. 



The Crested Serpent or Indian Harrier Eagle is very rare ; one 

 was obtained at Savantvadi by Mr. Crawford, and another in Sind 

 by Mr. Blanford. These are, I believe, the only recorded in- 

 stances of its occurrence within our limits. 



Spilornis melanotis, Jerd. 



39bis. Butler, Deccan, &c. ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 373 ; 



Hume's Scrap Book, p. 230, 



The Southern Harrier Eagle differs perceptibly from S. cheela 

 of Upper India ; the wings of the latter vary in the males from 

 .18*5 to nearly 20 inches, and in the females from 19'5 to nearly 21 ; 

 while in this present species they vary in the males from 17 to 

 barely 18 inches, and in the females from 18 to 18*5 inches; the 

 lower parts also are somewhat less conspicuously ocellated, and 



