52 SPIZAETUS KELAARTI. 



Chin, throat, and fore neck creamy white, with a very broad, mesial, black stripe, and with two others, less clearly 

 defined, passing from the gape down the sides of the throat, and spreading out over its lower part : cheeks and 

 ear-coverts boldly striped with black, the edges of the feathers concolorous with the sides and back of neck ; chest, 

 breast, flanks, and all the lower parts, including the legs and under tail-coverts, sienna-brown, darkest on the 

 flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts ; the feathers of the chest with wide and deep marginal indentat ions of white, 

 and the breast, flanks, thighs, abdomen, and under tail-coverts barred with straight, complete bands of white;, the 

 shaft being of the same colour ; bars on the thighs narrow, but everywhere else broad, the brown interspaces on 

 the sides of the breast and on the under tail-coverts with their lower edges darker than the rest ; tarsi pair brow n. 

 with whitish tips to the feathers ; lesser and median under wing-coverts concolorous with the chest and narrow Iv 

 barred with white ; the greater series white, crossed with blackish-brown bars ; under surface of the light portions 

 of the quills and tail-feathers greyish white. 



05s. The above description is combined from the examination of several fully-sized females, exhibiting each a 

 different amount of intensity in the colour of the crown and hind neck, but none of them possessing the extremely 

 dark features characteristic of adult Nepaul birds, or any inclination to the very broad chin-stripe of these latter, 

 though this character is variable in that species. The older the Ceylonese birds become, no doubt the darker would 

 be the head, and the bolder the chin and moustachial stripes, although I do not think they would ever acquire the 

 same degree of melanism as the Indian species [Spizaetus nipalensis). 



I have unfortunately no data of the dimensions of any ascertained adult males; but the following of an immature 

 bird, shot by Mr. Bligh, and the subject of the background figure in my Plate, will give some idea of the size 

 attained by that sex. 



Vim in/ male, apparently at the outset of the 2nd year : — Wing 16'3 inches ; tail 11-75 : tarsus 4 - 5 ; mid toe 2 - 3, its claw 

 (straight) 1-4; hind claw 1-7. (Two presumed males, in the British Museum, of Spizaetas nipalensis, have the 

 wings 17'0 and 17'3 respectively; and an ascertained male, recorded at p. 213 of ' Bough Xotes,' measures 17'8, 

 which, iu view of the respective sizes of the females in the two races, will fairly represent that of adult males of 

 Sjiizn, lux liliiarti.) 



Above brown, the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts conspicuously margined with white as in the smaller species 

 (Spizaetus ceylonensis) ; crown with the centres of the feathers dark brown, paling into fulvous at the margins : 

 rest of the head aud hind neck paler, the edges of the feathers pale fulvescent ; crest well developed, the feathers 

 black, deeply tipped with white ; greater wing-coverts pale brown, with much white on the inner webs and at the 

 tips ; primaries and secondaries blackish brown, with paler smoky-brown bars than in the adult : the inner webs 

 white towards the base ; tail blackish brown, crossed with four pale brownish bands ; the black interspaces and 

 terminal band narrower than in the adult ; tip whitish. 



Chin, throat, and fore neck white ; the chin unstriped, a few blackish-brown drop-shaped marks on the throat, spreading 

 laterally over the fore neck ; chest-feathers pale sienna-brown, indented at the sides with bar-like spots of white : 

 breast, flanks, abdomeu, and under tail-coverts pale brownish, barred with complete white bands, wider than the 

 brown interspaces, which are darker on the flanks than on the centre of the breast ; thighs barred more narrowlv 

 than the breast, the brown hue concolorous with that of the sides ; tarsi pale brownish, the feathers tipped with 

 whitish ; under wing-coverts white, spotted with sepia-brown. 



Obs. I discriminated (loc.cit.) this Hawk-Eagle from the Indian species (Spizaetus nipalensis), having made a careful 

 examination of all the examples to hand in the British, Indian, and Norwich Museums, to aid me in my conclusions : 

 and the diagnosis of the distinctive characteristics of the two species, given in my article, will, I think, be sufficient 

 to establish the Ceylonese bird as a good subspecies or local race, which I have named after Dr. Kelaart, who first 

 brought to notice the existence of the species in Ceylon. For the benefit of my Ceylon readers and others who 

 have not seen my remarks in ' The Ibis,' I now recapitulate in substance the remarks I there made. 



The Ceylonese bird differs from the Indian in the peculiar barring of the entire under surface from the throat down- 

 wards, and in its very large feet and claws, the latter of which are especially noteworthy. Furthermore, it does 

 not appear to acquire the black head and cheeks and the very broad black throat-stripe which are characteristic of 

 Spizaetus nipalensis. In this latter bird the chest is usually dark brown, the centres of the feathers consisting of 

 a broad dark brown " drop " or stripe, which pales off into an unbroken fulvous-brown margin, while in others the 

 whole feather is sepia-brown, with slight marginal indentations of white ; this coloration is continued in most 

 examples down to the breast, about the middle or upper half of which the barred feathers commence, and in 

 which the white band is more or less irregular and interrupted at the shaft by the brown hue of the feather, the 

 division varying from an exceedingly fine margin on each side of the dark shaft to a broad space of about A inch. 

 In many birds these bars do not even correspond or oppose one another on each side of the shaft, amounting in 

 reality to nothing more than deep indentations of white. The thighs and under tail-coverts in the Xepaul bird 



