BAZA SUMATEENSIS, Lafr.f 313 



This is a mistake. I identified Aquila hastata with Aquila 

 pomarina, but never with Aquila navia, which I have always 

 regarded as the larger bird. I hope I shall never again be 

 accused of consenting to the application of the term ncevia to 

 the Lesser Spotted Eagle. 



True ncevia, or the Larger Spotted Eagle, is the subspecies (!) 

 Aquila clanga, Pall., according to Mr. Sharpe. In the list of 

 synonyms I notice that many of the old terms belonging to this 

 well-known bird are diverted, and the synonymy, as a whole, 

 appears to me deficient. 



The adult bird is described as being similar to the Lesser 

 Spotted Eagle, but very much larger. Here again we must 

 accept an adult bird with spots. 



The description of the young male is, I think, susceptible of 

 improvement. The spots on the wing-coverts are described as 

 " oval," but the buff spots on the lower back and rump are 

 is triangular," — a/ue simile of such a triangle would be instruc- 

 tive. The fact is the spots are invariably pure ovals. 



W. E. B. 



$a#i gumatrcnsis, Lafr.f 



I received almost simultaneously from Mr. Mandelli (a sup- 

 posed female obtained in Native Sikhim), and from my curator 

 Mr. Davison (an ascertained male obtained in the extreme 

 south of the Tenasserim Provinces) two specimens of a Baza, 

 which, although disagreeing in several important respects with 

 my friend Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe's diagnosis and description of 

 that species (Accipitres, pp. 352 to 357), belong, I am inclined 

 to believe, to Lafresnaye's sumatrensis. 



The main points of divergence are, 1st, size. The male, 

 measured in the flesh, has the wing 13*1. The supposed female 

 has the wing 13*75 — both have the crest fully 3 inches long, 

 black, tipped with white ; Ind, in the throat stripe, both having 

 a conspicuous chin and throat stripe, as in magnirostris ; 3rd, 

 colour, both being much more brightly colored, than Mr. 

 Sharpe's figure (PI. XL op. cit.), the male having the bands on 

 the lower surface, intermediate in colour between those of ery- 

 throthorax and magnirostris, (as shown in Mr. Sharpe's PI. X.) 

 and the bands in the female, being intermediate in colour, 

 between those of magnirostris and sumatrensis, as shown in the 

 figures referred to. 



My idea is, that Mr. Sharpe's young female was probably a 

 young male, that my female is a considerably older bird, and 

 my male a very much older one, and that in this species the 



