90 PEENIS PTILONORHYNCHUS. 



The above dimensions of males arc taken from four specimens, and those of females from twelve, of Ceylon-killed birds. 

 It is the exception to find a female measuring in I he wing more than L7"0 inches. Pour in my own collection 

 measure as follows — 15-7, 16-5, 16'5, 16'6; eight others, five of which are in the Norwich Museum, and two in 

 Lord Tweeddale's collection, 15-7, 10-8, 16'7, 10-4, 17 - 5, 16-0, 17-'J, 16-4. The last but one is included in a list 

 inv friend Mr. Gurney sent me, of two or three birds in Lord Tweeddale's collection, measured by himself, and is 

 most exceptional if the measurement is correct, which 1 have no doubt it is. The specimen must !«■ an extraor- 

 dinary and quite abnormal one — a giant among the Ceylonese Honey-Buzzards ! I may remark that Mr. Gurney 

 sends me the wing-measurement of a male in the same collectionas 17'78. I take it for granted that this specimen 

 has been wrongly sexed by the collector. 



I ris golden yellow, yellow mottled with brown, or yellow w ith a pale outer circle ; cere deep leaden colour ; bill blackish, 

 gape and the base of under mandible bluish ; legs and feet dull yellow, in some citron-yellow. The iris being 

 very variable, I have enumerated the several colours which I have found in dark birds. It is never red as in the 

 North-Bengal race. 



Fully adult or very old stage. Crown, hind neck, and upper surface rich dark earth-brown, the tips of the hiudneck- 

 feathers often darker than the rest ; back and wing-coverts suffused with a purplish lustre, a short occipital crest 

 nf 4 or 5 stiffish ovate feathers attaining a length of 2-3 inches, sometimes black, and at others coneolorous with 

 the nape ; the forehead above the eye, entire face, ear-coverts, and throat iron-grey, blending into the surrounding 

 plumage ; quills ashy brown, crossed with three or four widely separated bars of dark purplish brown, and a broad 

 terminal baud of the same, the extreme tip pale, the inner webs whitish from the notch inwards, with the inter- 

 spaces mottled with brownish ; upper tail-coverts, in some examples, tipped with whitish ; tail dark purple brown, 

 crossed by a broad, 2-inch, smoky-grey band about the same distance from the tip, and in some with a narrow- 

 bar of the same near the base. 



Throat and entire under surface dark chocolate-brown, the feathers dark-shafted ; a dark stripe on each side of the 

 throat, frequently continued across the fore neck in the shape of a gorget; under wing-coverts at times tipped 

 with fulvous ; under surface of light portion of tail grey. In two very dark specimens I examined in Ivandv the 

 feathers of the lower breast and abdomen were pale-tipped. 



A younger stage of plumage, but one which represents the generality of apparently adult birds killed in Ceylon, is as 

 follows : — 



Above rich sepia brown, the margins of the feathers somewhat paler, and the feathers of the occiput and hind neck, as 

 well as the fore neck and entire hinder surface, a fine chestnut brown, with blackish shafts ; a well-developed crest 

 of black feathers ; the lores and round the eye, in some examples, dark iron-grey mingled with brown, while in 

 others the forehead and above the eye is whitish, the centres of the feathers being coneolorous with the crown ; 

 the dark moustachial stripe is present, and, in the darker examples, is black, spreading over the throat and some- 

 times running up in a point to the chin ; the median wing-coverts are usually light-tipped, and have a considerable 

 amount of white at the base of the feathers ; the quills are not so dark as in the above, and have more white at 

 the tips, the bars being also closer together, and the interspaces more or less crossed with wavy light ravs ; in the 

 tail, the lighter or earthy-brown hue is the ground-colour, and contains numerous pale wavy cross rays : the tip 

 is whitish, and adjacent to it is a broadish deep-brown bar ; about 2\ inches above this, across the centre of the 

 feathers, is a narrow bar of the same, and another similar one near the base. The under surface is variable, being 

 in some examples a light fulvous brown, with the stripes very broad; while in others the striae are almost want- 

 ing on the breast ; the colour of the whole breast, however, is more or less uniform and devoid of white spaces in 

 the younger bird ; most of the basal portion of the inner webs of the primaries is white. 



In this stage the tail wants the characteristics of the very old bird, viz. the smoky-grey nearly uniform bands; but the 

 lores and the space beneath the eye have the grey appearance, which is a marked adult sign. The presence of the 

 white forehead in this adult stage, I consider to be quite abnormal, as many younger birds (as will be presently 

 noticed) have it uniform with the head. 



Youny. In birds of the first year the wing varies from 15-6 to 10-0, the other parts equal those of the adult. 



Iris in some yellow, in others brownish yellow, sometimes with a dark inner edge; cere bluish with greenish patches, 

 in others greenish yellow ; legs and feet greener than in the adult. 



Hack, scapulars, and wing-coverts darkish hair-brown, the wing-coverts more or less pale-edged, the median series being 

 the lightest, some examples having the lesser rows edged with whitish, and the outer series of primary-coverts 

 broadly margined with the same ; crown and occiput rich tawny brown, the feathers with blackish shaft-stripes ; 

 the hind neck with the larger part of the feather whitish, and the terminal portion pale brown with a dark shaft- 

 stripe ; the crest-feathers blackish brown, broadly margined or tipped with white ; forehead and a broad space 

 above the eye white ; lores and a broad posterior orbital streak dark brown with a slightly greyish shade, inner 

 primaries and secondaries deeply tipped with white, pale brown on both webs, and barred with dark brown, longer 

 primaries with more of the inner webs white than in adults, and with the basal portion of the outer webs light 



