44 
Birds of Celebes: Balconidae. 
neck and entire under surface white, the feathers margined on the first-named 
parts, on the breast and greater under wing-coverts with very pale ashy brown (from 
Sharpe). 
Measurements. 
Wing 
Tail 
Tarsus 
Exposed 
Culmen 
juv. (Sharpe d 2] 
350 
193 
72 
Q ad. (W. Bias, d 7) 
415 
223 
74 
40 
(C 14497) ad. Peling Id 
415 
215 
76 
40 
Distribution. Cachar, India (Inglis d 5)\ Assam (Brit. Mus. d 2)\ Burmah (Hume d 6)\ 
Malay Peninsula (Blyth f 1)\ Singapore (Strickl. d 5); Bunguran (Hose d 9)] Borneo 
(Doria & Beccari, Everett, Platen d 8)\ South Celebes — Macassar (Wallace 
d 2)\ Tjamha (Platen d 7)\ Peling Island (Nat. Coll.). 
2. Polioaetus humilis major n. subsp. 
Diagnosis. Size larger (wing, generally, 430 — 460 mm, but sometimes 483 mm — Blanf ord), 
hill much larger, foot and tarsus stouter (Hume). 
Distribution. “The suh-HImalayan ranges and submontane tracts (occasionally in the cold 
season straying some distance into the plains) from the borders of Afghanistan to 
Suddya in Assam” (Hume, Str. F. 1877 V, 130). 
3. Polioaetus humilis — major. 
Diagnosis. Intermediate. 
Distribution. The birds of Cachar are said to be intermediate between the typical P. 
humilis and P. humilis major. (Blanf ord. Faun. Br. Ind., B. IH 1895, 372.) 
This species, like the allied P. ichthyaetus Horsf., probably lives almost 
entirely upon fish, caught chiefly in inland waters. In N. E. Cachar Mr. Inglis 
noticed that it was more often to be found in the neighbourhood of rivers than 
jheels. In the Malay Archipelago it apj>ears to have been very seldom met 
with. Only two specimens, as Prof. W. Blasius points out, had hitherto been 
recorded from Celebes, both of them from the Macassar Peninsula, but another 
has now been obtained in Peling Island by the native hunters working for the 
Dresden Museum. One sptecimen from Borneo in the Norwich Museum was 
mentioned by Gurney, Ibis 1878, 458, and not more than three others from 
there, we believe, were known to Mr. Everett at the time of compiling his 
List (1889). In Java it does not yet appear to have been noticed. 
The large race of the Himalayas is stated to build a great nest in trees, 
the same pair returning yearly and adding to the structure. The usual number 
of eggs is three (Oates, Hume’s Nests and Eggs, III, 169). 
The allied P. ichthyaetus (Horsf.) is, as Gurney points out, a larger bird, 
having, when adult, the tail white ^). 
1) This form has often been called P. plumb eus Hoclgs., which is a nomen nudum, and of uncertain 
application. 
2) Polioaetus ichthyaetus (Horsf.). 
In giving the distribution of this species Cat. B, I, 453, Dr. Sharpe notes Celebes among other localities. 
