1839] 



of the Peninsula of India. 



7o 



Length 18 fo 22 inches— of one 18| inches long, the wings to 4th 

 quill are 15 inches ; tail 8| ; tarsus and middle toe, about equal, nearly 

 2 inches. Jrides brown ; legs dirty yellow ; anterior scales large trans- 

 verse-posterior smaller, in a double row— lateral scales small, bill 

 greenish horn colour, whitish at tip ; cere greenish white. 



Genus PERNIS, Cuv. 

 Honey-buzzard — Shahuleli, II. 



18— P. cr^tata,Q\iv.^F.ptilorhynchus,TQmm.—Crestedno7iey-bu 



I have only met with, this bird in the jungles of the Western Coast 

 and Neilgherries. It is by no means common. I occasionally saw it 

 seated on a tree, alternately raising and depressing its peculiarly formed 

 crest, and on the Neilgherries frequently saw it questing diligently 

 backwards and forwards over the dense woods there. I procured a 

 female at the foot of the Conoor pass, and a male on the summit of the 

 hills. Their usual flight is rather slow, but I once observed one flying 

 much more rapidly than in general with a continued motion of its wings, 

 and every now and then stopping and attempting to hover, which it did 

 with its wings turned very obliquely upwards ; this seemed a great ex- 

 ertion to it and was very clumsily peiformed. In the stomach of the 

 female I shot, was a soft green mass which looked like vegetable matter, 

 but which was probably the half digested remains of green caterpillars. 

 In the stomach of the male there was a large quantity of pure honey. 

 (Mr. Elliot found the hair of a rat in the stomach of one — in another 

 ants, -wax, and honey). The female contained an egg ready for expul- 

 sion, which was very different in colour from that of the English honey- 

 buzzard, recently figured in the ' Naturalist's Library,' and closely re- 

 sembled that of the common European kite, also figured there. 



As my specimens differ somewhat from the descriptions of this bird in 

 Cuvier and Lesson, I shall briefly describe them. Female — colour of 

 plumage pale brown ; lightest below and darkest on the scapulars and 

 larger coverts ; the shafts of the feathers of head, neck and breast, dark 

 brown ; an occipital crest of 3 or 4 deep brown oval feathers ; a f« u 

 white blotches on the belly increasing in number towards the vent ; 

 tail light greyish brown, numerously barred with deep brown, three of 

 the bars being conspicuously broader than the others. Bill blackish 

 blue colour ; legs and feet yellow ; irides bright yellow. 



