1882.] DR. W. BLASIUS ON BIRDS FROM CERAM . 699 



other, coming from Gorontalo on the island of Celebes, to the kind- 

 ness of Mr. G. Schneider, of Basle. 



The following table will show the difference : — 



Kostri 



(In the Catalogue Birds Brit. Mus. vol. i., Sharpe also states the 

 length of the tail as much less — for the male ad. 9'5 inches=24'2 cm., 

 and for the female ad. 11 inches=28"I cm.) 



At first I believed, on account of these widely differing proportions, 

 and particularly on account of the much longer tail, that I had before 

 me another species of the group of Haliaetus. But this supposition 

 is contradicted by the fact that, till now, no other species has been 

 found in the region of the Moluccas, and that this very same species 

 has been found by Hoedt on the island of Oeram (Schlegel, Mus. 

 Pays-Bas), and observed by Rosenberg (Malayischer Arch. p. 322) 

 near the mouth of the Bobot river. 



Besides, the feathering of the leg (only in front on the upper third 

 of the tarsus), the formation of the scales (in front a row of very 

 broad plates descending nearly to the root of the toes), and the 

 formation of the claws are exactly the same as in the old specimens 

 mentioned above. Of the other species of Haliaetus very well repre- 

 sented in the Brunswick Museum, the longer-tailed H. leucoryphus 

 (Pall.) approaches the nearest iu size and formation of bill and legs. 

 But our specimen from Ceram differs from it, apart from the different 

 colouring, in the wider and deeper descending scales of the tarsus, 

 and in the smaller development of the hind claw. I propose there- 

 fore to classify the bird for the present as C. leucogaster, and suppose 

 that this species has when young a considerably longer tail than when 

 old, and that the average measurements of Salvadori have been taken 

 exclusively from old individuals. With this opinion coincide more or 

 less the opinions of Mr. E. F. von Homeyer of Stolp, of Dr. Alph. 

 Dubois of Brussels, of Dr.Rud. Blasius of Brunswick, and of Mr. Henry 

 Seebohm of London, the first three of whom have at my request seen 

 and compared the bird with H. leucoryphus, and distinctly stated the 

 difference. I also owe to the just named gentlemen (principally to 

 Mr. H. Seebohm) on this occasion some precise communications about 

 the variability of the length of tail in the large birds of prey in 

 general, and about the often surprisingly greater dimensions of the 

 plumage of the young individuals of Accipitres in comparison with the 

 old ones, which have essentially confirmed me in classifying the 

 present specimen as H. leucogaster. 



The specimen is in the Brunswick Museum. 



