316 BAZA 3UMATRENSIS, Lafr.f 



The supposed female was sent to me by Mr. Mandelli aa 

 Spizaetus Lathami of Tickell. He was doubtless led to this 

 conclusion by its long Spizaetus-like crest, but I can hardly 

 think that Tickell could have overlooked the short, half-bare 

 tarsi, feeble feet and doubly toothed bill, and called this bird a 

 Spizaetus. Still as it has now been obtained in Native Sikhim, 

 a specimen might have strayed to the hilly parts of Chota 

 Nagpore, and as Colonel Tickell's specimens are now understood 

 to be about to be made available for examination, it will be 

 interesting to ascertain whether Mr. Mandelli's idea has any 

 foundation in fact. 



The following are the measurements from the dry skin of 

 this supposed female : — 



Length, 220; wing, 1375; tail, 1025 ; tarsus, 1*7 : ; bill 

 from gape, 1*3 1 from nostril straight to point, 1*0; midtoe 

 to root of claw, 1*7 ; its claw straight from root to point, 0'68. 

 The double teeth in the upper mandible not so sharp or quite 

 so marked as in the male ; the quills as in the male, but the 

 3rd 0-4, the 2nd 1*2 and the 1st 32 shorter than the 4th and 5th. 

 Tail much as in the male, but the two central tail-feathers are 

 not quite fully grown, and are still a trifle shorter than those next 

 to them. The tail with four bands as in the male, the terminal one 

 1*77, the next 0*8, and the last visible one 0"63, broad; the 

 first interspace 1*1 and the 2nd 0*75 broad. 



The supposed female is as a whole very similar to the male, 

 but the forehead, and in fact the whole of the head, nape, and 

 sides of the neck, are more rufescent and have less conspicuous 

 dark brown central stripes; the mantle is a much less dark 

 brown ; there is less of the purple gloss, and the marginal 

 fringes of the feathers aie broader and more rufous; there 

 is no grey about the cheeks, which are pale fulvous fawn ; 

 the chin and throat too are fulvous white, and the throat stripe 

 is brown instead of black, as in the male. 



The mottled portion of the breast extends lower down than 

 in the male • the barring on the rest of the lower surface is 

 paler and more purely rufous than in the male ; the quills 

 and tail, both above and below, are almost precisely similar in 

 the two specimens, but all the coverts in the female are lighter 

 and more rufescent, and all are more or less distinctly margined 

 with white at the tips. 



If these birds are really sumatrensis, the occurrence of one 

 of them in Native Sikhim is well worthy of record, and if, on 

 the other hand, the species be new, no apology for this notice 

 is necessary. 



A. O. H. 



