148 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THK ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



the cere, lores, and orbital skin bright yellow ; the bare space, 

 both above and below the eye, is more extended than in 

 cheela. 



The chin and throat not dark as in this latter ; but in the 

 adult bird, a very dark, though not very well denned, mousta- 

 chial stripe, runs from the base of the lower mandible under the 

 eye to the base of the ear-coverts. 



This species is characterized by the extreme coarseness and 

 stoutness of the tarsi, covered over with thick horn-like 

 hexagonal, or pentagonal scales, with in many specimens 

 no very conspicuous frontal scutas. The papilla? of the soles 

 are almost as hard and prominent in the adult as in an Osprey, 

 and the scutation of the tarsi is more like that of Circaetus galli- 

 cus than of Spilornis cheela. 



The young seem to go through the same phases of plumage 

 or nearly so as those of cheela. The quite young bird has the 

 entire head, neck all round, and entire lower parts, pale fulvous ; 

 a few of the feathers of the breast dark shafted ; ear-coverts 

 dark shafted, some of the median ones with dusky central 

 stripes ; and all the longest ones tipped with brown. Feathers of 

 the occiput and nape, with a subterminal dark brown band, 

 those of the upper back fringed at the tips with white, and with 

 a broad subterminal brown patch ; scapulars, interscapulary 

 region, rest of back, and upper tail coverts, and lesser wing 

 coverts, the feathers white or fulvous white at their bases, but 

 the visible portions hair brown, each narrowly margined at the 

 tips with fulvous white ; tail, olive brown, tipped with fulvous 

 white, and with one subterminal and one other blackish brown 

 transverse bar, each about an inch broad, and the ground color 

 immediately above and below the second bar mottled paler. 



In a more advanced stage the breast is as in the 'adult, but 

 paler, the tibial plumes are barred, but the entire wing lining, 

 sides, vent, and lower tail coverts are still fulvous white. The 

 upper back and interscapulary region are as in the adult, but 

 the whole of the top of the head, nape, and crest is mottled 

 white and black, with only here and there a little rufous tinge 

 at the margins of the black. The tail in this bird exhibits a 

 subterminal, and two other distinct bars each about 0*75 in. wide, 

 and rather more than an inch apart. Certainly the variation in 

 the banding of the tail, in this genus, requires careful invest- 

 gation, which can only be carried out by those resident where 

 the bird is breeding. 



We only met with this species in the Andamans and at Monts- 

 chall in the Nicobars. It is much less common in the former 



