358 A FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS 
As to the white tipping to the crest, this is very irregular, 
the youngest birds and the oldest most generally want it ; birds 
of intermediate ages generally have it; but in several cases I 
notice of two birds, in precisely the same stage, that one wants, 
and the other exhibits it. 
39 bis.—Spilornis melanotis, Jerd. S. minor, Hume. 
? S. albidus, Cuv. 
“ The Harrier Eagle is commoner than the Black Kite Eagle, 
but though sometimes making an attempt on the fowl-yard, it is 
generally rather shy. It hasa loud clanging scream, which 
the bird utters while soaring high in the air.—f, W. B.” 
Two males of this species are typical examples of the smaller 
southern race which I designated mznor, and which it is said 
should, if distinct, stand as a/bidus, Cuvier. 
The birds are not only smaller, very much smaller than S. 
cheela of the Himalayas, but they look very different, and the 
conspicuous absence of all striation on the breast catches the 
eye at once. 
The following are the measurements in the flesh of two males, 
one an old adult, the other a young bird just beginning to pass 
into the adult plumage :— 
Adult—Length, 25; expanse, 48; wing, 17; tail, 12°25; 
bill from gape, 1:8; tarsus, 3°75. 
Young—Length, 24; expanse, 50; wing, 15°75 ; tail, 10°75 ; 
tarsus, 3°87; bill at gape, 1:8. In this latter, killed in 
March, the cere and bare space round the eye were yellow; 
the legs and feet were dirty yellow; claws, black; the irides, 
pale, clear yellow; the base of bill and gonys, plumbeous ; the 
tip, black. 
47.—Buteo plumipes. Hodgs. Beng. Sp. Mag. p. 182, 
1836.—P. Z.S8. 1845, p. 87.— B. rufiventer, Jerd. 
1847.—Falco buteo japonicus, Tem and Schl. 1850. 
“This bird, a winter visitor, seems to be not uncommon 
during December, January, and February, preferring high open 
country, where two or three may be seen steadily quartering 
the ground and occasionally pouncing on some mouse or 
lizard. I have seen them perch both on trees and on 
stones, and once saw one as low as 2,000 feet elevation, where 
it was beating backwards and forwards over a field of young 
coffee.—F. W. B.” 
The single specimen sent from Travancore by Mr. Bourdillon 
belongs, I believe, unquestionably to Hodgson’s species, plumipes. 
Thave long since come to the conclusion that the Himalayan 
and northern Pegu Buzzards which I identified with japonicus, 
