306 Catalogue of Nepdlese Birds. [No. 136. 



Length twenty-nine to above thirty-two inches, of which the tail 

 measures thirteen to fourteen inches and a half; wing eighteen to 

 nineteen inches; tarse four inches and a half, and in one specimen 

 before me very densely feathered, in another much less densely. Bill 

 two inches from point to gape, in a straight line : the talons large and 

 powerful. Both these specimens are evidently adults, and probably 

 male and female. 



Three Indian species of this group have now been noticed ; viz. 

 grandis, niveus (aut caligatus ?J> and pulcher ; and there remain the 

 following: Sp. cristatellus (Tern.), Jardine and Selby. ///. Orn. pi. 



LXVI; Elliot, in Madras JL, No. XXV, 234; Sp. Kienerii; 



Astur Kienerii, Magasin de Zoologie, Guerin, 1837, pi. 35 ; Sp. 

 albogularis, Tickell (Nobis), J. A. S. XI, 456, pallidus, men- 

 tioned only by Mr. Hodgson in J. A. S. VI, 361, which I do not 

 know; — and rufitinctus, McClelland and Horsfield, P. Z. S. 1839, 

 p. 153, which would scarcely seem to belong strictly to this genus.*] 



6. Limnaetus [unicolor, Vigors ; Falco limnaetus, Horsfield ; F' 

 unicolor, Temminck ; Morphnus hastatus (?), Lesson, Zoologie du 



* Since the above was written, the Society has received two fine specimens of a 

 member of this genus, which, from Mr. Elliot's description, I am disposed to refer to Sp. 

 cristatellus. Length about twenty-six inches, of wing from bend sixteen inches, and 

 tail twelve inches ; bill, from point to gape, an inch and three-quarters ; and tarse four 

 inches and a half anteriorly : occipital crest four inches. Colour of the upper-parts 

 light fulvescent-brown towards the edges of the feathers, their central portion dark 

 aquiline brown, which latter is confined to a mesial streak on the feathers of the nape; 

 prolonged occipital crest dull black : under-parts white at base, and for the greater 

 portion of each feather, their terminal part having a mesial dusky streak, edged with 

 light brown ; a dusky streak more or less developed from each corner of the lower 

 mandible, and a central one on the throat well developed in one specimen, indistinctly 

 so on the other; a brownish bar across the abdomen more or less distinct; and posterior 

 to this the abdominal feathers and lower tail-coverts are banded with light fulvous- 

 brown, and broadly tipped with the same, the tibial and short tarsal plumes being 

 similarly coloured : volar feathers of the wings dusky externally, their inner webs 

 brown with dusky bars, and the pale portion passing into white internally, anterior to 

 the emargination of the primaries ; underneath the volar plumes are white anterior to 

 their emargination, and barred with dusky beyond it; the fore-part of the under surface 

 of the wing being also white, mottled with dusky-brown, and the axillaries and sides 

 marked with rufescent-brown : tail also brown above, with five dusky bands on the 

 older specimen, the basal one indistinct, and the last or subterminal band broadest; in 

 the other marked with six dark bands, and the rudiment of a seventh at base; under- 

 neath albescent, the dark bands partially obsolete. This species is not improbably 

 Mr. Hodgson's pallidus ; and can only doubtfully, I think, be referred to that figured 

 by Messrs. Jardine and Selby. 



