PANDION HALIAETUS. 123 



Amid, Dutch; Aguila pescadora, Spanish; Aguia presqueira, Portuguese; Halasz-Has, 

 Transylvania. Mesago, Japanese (Blakiston). 

 Machariya, Hind.; Yerali addi pong, Tarn. (Jerdon); Matchmorol, Beng. ; Macharang, 

 Nepaui; Wonlet, Arracan; He-pew, "Fish-Tiger," Chinese (Swinhoe). 



Adult female. Length to front of cere 20-0 to 23-0 inches ; culmen from cere 1-5 to 165 ; wing 19-5 to 20-5 ; tail 

 8-0 to 9-0 ; tarsus 2-2 to 2-3 ; longer anterior or middle toe 1-7 to 2-0, its claw (straight) 1-15 ; height of bill at 

 cere 0-55. Weight 3| lb. {Jerdon). 



Male. Wing 18-0 to 19-0 inches ; tarsus 2-0 to 2-2 ; middle toe 1-6 to 1*8. 



The above measurements are taken from a series of Asiatic examples, one from Beloochistan being the largest. 



Iris yellow ; cere plumbeous ; bill black, paling to bluish at the gape and base of under mandible ; legs and feet greenish 

 in some, yellowish in others ; claws black. 



The colours of the legs and feet are variously given as greenish and yellowish. An example shot in Ireland, May 14, 

 1878, and examined in the flesh by myself, had the soft parts as follows : — Iris reddish yellow ; cere dark plumbeous ; 

 bill blackish horn-colour, paler at gape ; legs and feet pale bluish, slightly tinged with green. 



Head and hind neck white, the feathers on the centre of the crown, above the eye, a postorbital band running over 

 the ears and down the side of the neck, as also the terminal half of the occipital crest blackish brown, but less in 

 extent in very old birds ; some of the feathers on the side of the nape with dark shaft-stripes ; lower part of hind 

 neck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts glossy pale brown, with a purplish lustre in newly-plumaged birds ; longer 

 primaries (from the first to the fifth) black-brown ; the remainder and the secondaries paler brown, tipped with 

 dull white ; the inner webs white towards the base, with the brown hue partially divided into bars ; upper tail-coverts 

 tipped with white ; tail sandy brown, tipped with whitish, and crossed, except in very old birds, with subdued 

 bars of a darker hue : inner webs of the lateral feathers white ; the shafts of the rectrices white ; beneath white. 



The cheeks striped with brown, and the chest washed with fulvous, with streaks of brown in many examples ; flanks 

 streaked partially with brown ; under wing-coverts barred with brown and tipped with fulvous, those beneath 

 the edge of the wing browner than the rest. 



Ohs. The brown colour of the chest seems to be an individual variation, independent, in some cases, of age, although 

 it appears to be, as Mr. Sharpe remarks, generally more marked in the old birds, which are plainly distinguishable 

 by their unbarred tails. In these latter, however, it varies in extent and character, being accompanied, when very 

 marked, by an encroachment on the throat of the side-neck stripe. In some examples the underlying crest- 

 feathers are often rufous, this being a remnant of the immature plumage, which appears to remain in such birds : 

 in other specimens the wing-coverts retain a certain amount of pale edging. 



Young. Mr. Sharpe (loc. cit.) describes the nestling as being " covered with down of a sooty-brown colour, except 

 along the centre of the back, along the carpal bend of the wing, on the breast and flanks, where it is dusky white ; 

 all the feathers of the back are dark brown, with a broad tip of ochraceous buff ; crown and ear-coverts blackish ; 

 eyebrow and throat white." 



Bird of the year*. Above chocolate-brown, the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts with sharply defined white tips to 

 the feathers, separated from the brown by a buff margin ; the wing-coverts more conspicuously edged than the 

 back ; the postorbital stripe broader than in the adult, and terminally edged with fulvous ; the white sides of the 

 nape and the back of the neck not striated as in the adult ; primaries and secondaries deeply tipped with fulvous- 

 white ; upper tail-coverts margined and tipped with fulvous ; tail barred with six or seven narrow bands of brown, 

 conspicuous on the central rectrices ; fore part of crown dark brown ; crest-feathers often edged with fulvous ; 

 beneath white, chest sometimes unmarked, at others washed with fulvous and streaked with brown as in old birds. 



Distribution. — This cosmopolitan bird of prey, as a matter of course, takes the island of Ceylon into its 

 range, visiting its northern parts in fair numbers during the cool season, a few birds continuing their course 

 to the extreme south. Although previously received by Lord Tweeddale from Ceylon, Mr. Holdsworth, in his 

 catalogue {toe. cit.), was the first to include the Osprey among tbe birds of the island, having observed it on a 



A Tangier example and one from Nootka Sound, North America, are identical in plumage. 



