BAZA LOPHOTES. 



(THE INDIAN CRESTED FALCON.) 



Falco lophotes, Temm. PL Col. i. pi. 10 (1823). 



Buteo cristatus, Bonn, et Vieill. Enc. Meth. iii. p. 1220 (1823). 



Baza syama, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. v. p. 777 (1836). 



Baza lophotes, Gray, List Gen. B. p. 4.(1840); Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 17 (1849); 



id. J. A. S. B. xix. p. 325 (1850); Kelaart, Prodromus, p. 115 (1852); Layard, Ann. 



& Mag. N. H. 1853, xii. p. 102; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 62. 



no. 72 (1854) ; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. Ill (1862) ; Hume, Rough Notes, ii. p. 337 (1870) ; 



Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 415; Sharpe, Cat. B. i. p. 352 (1874); Walden, Ibis, 



1876, p. 341. 

 Hytiopus syama, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. x. p. 27 (1841). 

 Hytiopus lophotes, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xii. p. 312 (1843). 

 Pernis lophotes, Kaup, Contr. Orn. 1850, p. 77. 

 Baza indicus, Bp. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 535. 

 Cohy Falcon, Lath. Gen. Hist. i. p. 165, pi. x. (1821). 

 Black-crested Kite, " Baza," Cohy Falcon, Cohy Pern, in India. 

 Cohy of the Parbutties ; Syama, lit. " Black," Nepal. 



Adult male*. Length to front of cere 12-5 inches ; culruen from cere - 8; wing 9-2 to 9-4, expanse 30 - 5 ; tail 5 - 

 to 5-5; tarsus 1-05 to l'l : middle toe 1*0 to 1-1, claw (straight) (>47 ; height of bill at cere - 35. 



No difference in size exists between examples from Nepaul, Ceylon, and Pinang. 



Iris brownish red ; cere bluish leaden ; bill pale bluish leaden, darker at the sides above the tooth ; legs and feet pale 

 bluish, claws black. 



Entire head, throat, body above, wing-coverts, longer scapulars, quills, tail, and body beneath from the upper breast 

 black, with a dark green gloss above and on the under tail-coverts. A long occipital crest of 3 or 4 narrow 

 feathers 2| inches in length ; tertials and some of the concealed scapulars rufous towards the tips ; a broad edging 

 of the same near the extremities of the secondaries ; tertials and scapulars white across the middle, showing 

 conspicuously on the longer feathers, the terminal portions of which are black. 



Chest pure white, succeeded by a band of deep vinous chestnut, many of the feathers of which are edged with black ; 

 below this the black sides of the breast are overlaid with long ochraceous white plumes, meeting across the body 

 below the band, and barred down the sides with the chestnut ; lower surface of quills and tail stone-grey, witli a 

 dark patch near the tips on the outer portion of the latter. 



The black plumage underlying the stiff breast-plumes is a singular character in this bird's attire. 



Young. In the bird of the year the anterior tooth is less developed than in the adult, and the second or posterior 

 notch is not developed : the crest is of much the same length as in the old bird. 



The chief characteristic is the great amount of white and rufous, handsomely intermingled, on the wings and scapulars. 



Head and upper surface dusky black, with a rufescent tinge on the back-feathers everywhere but at the tips ; the 

 scapulars and tertials are vinaceous rufous, with their centre portions white, and a bar of the same extends across 

 the outer webs of the secondaries in the same position as the rufous edgings in the adult ; lateral tail-feathers 

 paler than the rest and tipped with white ; throat a brownish or paler black than the head : the white of the chest 

 narrower than in the adult ; the pectoral band a paler and handsomer rufous, variable in width, and only continued 

 in bars on the breast-plumes to a very limited extent ; the abdomen and underlying breast-feathers with pale 

 edgings ; under surface of tail wanting the black patch. 



* An example iu the British Museum from Nepaul, which has a wing of 9-4 and is not sexed, may be a female ; a 

 ( 'eylonese male, however, measures 9 - 3. 



