301 



Catalogue of Nepdlese Birds presented to the Asiatic Society, duly 

 named and classified by the Donor, Mr. Hodgson, [and revised by 

 the Society's Curator^.* 



1. [Spizaetus (Vieillot, as recognised by Messrs. Jardine and Selby, 

 ///. Orn. pi. LXVI) grandis :~\] Nisaetus grandis, Hodgson, [«/. A. S. 

 V, 230 ;] (aberrant species :) [Nisaetus niveus ? Jerdon, ' Madras Jour- 

 nal,' No. XXIV, 69,J (as identified from a specimen presented to the 

 Society by that gentleman ;) but not Falco niveus, Temminck, which is 

 Nisaetus Nipalensis, Hodgson, J. A. S. V, 229, and apparently also 

 the F. caligatus, Raffles, Lin. Trans. XIII, 278, wherein the state- 

 ment that it measures " more than three feet across the wings" would 

 seem to be a misprint for five feet : the latter species, i. e. niveus (aut 

 potids caligatusf) is not uncommon in Lower Bengal, adults having 

 the under-parts very handsomely streaked with deep brown or brown- 

 ish-black, of which but slight or sometimes no traces occur in the 

 young ; one adult female which I have obtained, that was paired with 

 a mate of the ordinary colour, being wholly dusky-black, with an ashy 

 tinge on the upper-parts ; its brilliant golden irides contrasting finely 

 with the blackish hue of the plumage. 



The Sp. grandis varies much in colouring according to age, and 

 somewhat even at the same age ; wherefore, as Mr. Hodgson's des- 



* Vide XI, 778. — It was the wish of Mr. Hodgson that this Catalogue should have 

 been published immediately, but this could only have been done in a very crude and 

 imperfect manner, and the delay is more than compensated by the suppression of a 

 host of unpublished synonyms, which would otherwise have required to be subse- 

 quently reduced. I have also had to find up the various scattered descriptions by Mr. 

 Hodgson, and to collate the synonymy of many of the species, besides drawing up des- 

 criptions of several new species, — altogether no inconsiderable labour. Moreover, 

 the delay has enabled Mr. Hodgson to improve the nomenclature considerably, both 

 as regards the institution of some necessary new genera, and the specific appellations 

 of certain of the new species. — E. B. 



f Since writing the above, I have strongly inclined to the opinion that this is the 

 Aquila Bonelli, of which I have no good description to refer to. A. Bonelli is included 

 in Mr. Vigue's list of birds procured in Kashmir and little Tibet, P. Z. S. 1841, p. 6, 

 the present species, besides being quite crestless, has the cere of an Aquila, and not of 

 a Spizaetus ; but its irides are bright yellow, as in the latter group, and the general 

 form also inclines more to the latter. 



% Vide also Elliot, in No. XXV, p. 234, of the same publication. 



