2 20 DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 



hawk-eagles includes Africa, the north coast of the Mediterranean, India, Ceylon, 

 and Australia. Among the small number of species constituting this genus, 

 the best known is Bonelli's hawk - eagle {Nisaetus fasciatus), w^hich is at 

 the same time one of the largest, the female measuring 26 inches in length, and 

 thus being somewhat more than two-thirds the size of the golden eagle. In general 

 colour the adult bird (shown in the lower figure of our illustration) is dark brown 



bonelli's hawk-eagle (J nat. size). 



above, with some w^hite about the head and in the region of the neck ; the quills 

 are deep brown, with white mottlings on their inner webs ; and the tail is ashy- 

 brown, with a broad terminal band of dark brown, and several incomplete bars of 

 the same tint higher up. The axillaries are white, streaked with black ; and the 

 under- parts are w-hite, with dark shaft-stripes of variable breadth to the feathers, 

 passing on the flanks into arrow-head-like markings. The beak is black, with a 

 lighter base; the iris yellow, the cere dull yellow, and the foot whitish yellow. 

 In the young bird, as shown in the upper figure of our engraving, the general 



