48 NEOrUS MALAYENSIS. 



Obs. The chief distinguishing characteristic of this peculiar Eagle is its remarkable foot and straight claws, the inner 

 of which is the longest, exceeding the hind by about Ol inch, which latter is just twice tin- length of the miter. 



Ms ha/.el-brown ; bill brownish horn-colour, paling into greenish at the cere ; cere, gape, and base of lower mandible 

 citron-yellow ; feet gamboge-yellow. 



Head and entire upper surface sooty black, darkest on the head, lesser wing-coverts, and scapulars, and paling into 

 brown on the upper tail-coverts ; entire under surface and legs blackish brown, blending into the black of the 

 cheeks and hind neck ; feathers of the head with spinous glossy shafts, bases of the loral plumes and a small space 

 above them white ; scapulars and outer webs of quills with a green lustre ; bases of the inner webs of the longer 

 primaries barred with white : on the remainder and those of the secondaries there are indications of bars slight ly 

 lighter than the ground-colour; concealed portions of the upper tail-coverts crossed with narrow incomplete white 

 bars ; tail with four or five interrupted bars, slightly paler than the ground-colour, the terminal one about 2\ inches 

 from the tip; on the under surface these bars show whitish, and mostly so on the lateral feathers, where they 

 increase to seven ; under wing-coverts uniform brownish black. 



The amount of white about the lores varies in individuals, and a specimen from Ceylon in my collection has a small 

 tuft of white feathers below the cheeks. 



Young. In the nestling-plumage, as figured by Schlegel (loc. cit), the head, neck, and entire under surface are fulvescent 

 buff, each feather with a central stripe of brown, the pale ground-colour darkening on the back and wings into 

 blackish brown, and having the margins of the feathers buff. 



Immature bird. Wing of an example in the British Museum 18 - 5 inches. 



In this plumage the back, wings, and tail are but little paler than in the adult ; crown almost uniform black, the feathers 

 tipped with fulvous, which on the nape, hind neck, and behind the ears increases in extent, and gives those. parts 

 a striated appearance ; the forehead and lores whiter than in the adult ; lesser and median wing-coverts tipped 

 pale ; primaries as black as in the adult, the inner webs with narrow mottled bars of white as far out as the notch ; 

 bars of the tail-feathers narrower, closer together, and more numerous than in the adult, the terminal one nearer 

 the tip ; upper tail-coverts as in the adult ; throat and fore neck deep brown, the feathers tipped with fulvous ; 

 breast, flanks, and thighs mingled with rufous and streaked and mottled with the brown of the fore neck ; lower 

 part of tarsi streaked and mottled with fulvous ; under tail-coverts barred with the same ; under wing-coverts buff, 

 closely barred with irregular marks of blackish brown. 



Willi age, as the pale striations and tippings of the upper surface disappear, the bars on the inner webs of the primaries 

 diminish near the tips ; the tail-bars likewise alter in character ; but they are always perceptible on the cent ral 

 feathers in the oldest birds, and the bases of the primaries are never, as far as I have been able to examine speci- 

 mens, without a few white bars. Mr. Sharpe observes, in his ' Catalogue,' that while the change to the adult 

 plumage on the upper surface takes place by a partial moult, the alteration on the lower parts is acquired by the 

 brown edgings of the feathers gradually occupying the whole of the web. 



Distribution. — The Black Eagle is found both in the lowlands of Ceylon and the mountain-zone up to the 

 highest elevations. In the low country it confines itself chiefly to tracts of forest and retired valleys in 

 the vicinity of some rocky eminence, on which, in all probability, it breeds. I have seen it on several occasions 

 in the Kurunegala district and about the Ambepussa bills ; further south, in the more wooded portions of the 

 Pasdun Korale and Saffragam, it is more plentiful, and in the billy jungle-clad country between Galle and the 

 southern mountain-range I have often seen it soaring round the forest-covered bills on the southern bank of 

 the Gindurah, or gliding over the secluded valleys at the base of the Morowak Korale coffee-districts. In these 

 latter it is not uncommon too. The endless jungles of the eastern side of the island, teeming with bird-life, 

 form a grand refuge for these sable robbers ; and I have observed them from the base of the Ouvab hills to the 

 Friar's Hood forests, between which latter and the sea, at about an hour's walk from the Batticaloa Lake, I 

 once shot a fine specimen. In the northern half of the island I have met with it as far up as the neighbourhood 

 of Haborenna, near which the lofty cliffs of Rittagalla and the precipitous rock of Sigiri no doubt furnish it 

 with a permanent residence. 



In the Central Province it is tolerably common, confining itself to the higher peaks in the Kandy district 

 and the high ranges surrounding the Nuwara-Elliya plateau. I have seen it at Horton Plains and at Kanda- 

 polla, near the sanatorium ; but it is oftener met witli on the Uva side between Nuwara Elliya and Madulsima 

 than anywhere else in the hills. 



