NISAETUS FASCIATUS. 
37 
Above deep brown, very dark on the rump ; the feathers of the head, neck, upper back, and wing-coverts with pale 
margins, and the concealed portions white ; longer scapular feathers almost black near the tips ; feathers of the 
nape elongated ; edge of the wing from the flexure to the front white ; median coverts paler brown than lesser, 
with a dark patch near the tips and the bases mottled ; primaries and secondaries black-brown, the outer webs of 
the longer quills washed with grey, the inner webs of all whitish towards the base and crossed by narrow bars ; 
inner webs of secondaries mottled with white ; upper tail-coverts tipped with greyish white ; tail brownish grey or 
cinereous brown, with a broad terminal band of blackish brown, and the basal part of the central feathers marked 
transversely near the shaft with wavy brown rays, which, on the more lateral feathers, develop into narrow 
irregular bars. 
Loral plumes blackish ; a blackish-brown moustachial patch ; ear-coverts and the sides of the neck below them tawny 
brown, striped with a darker hue, and the space above them at the posterior corner of the eye whitish ; under 
surface from the chin to the belly white ; the throat with fine mesial lines, and the fore neck, chest, and breast 
with blackish-brown central stripes, generally broadest at the sides of the breast and flanks, and in some specimens 
very wide on the chest ; thighs variable, in some specimens dark brown with pale indentations, in others much 
paler, but with the same character of marking ; abdomen and under tail-coverts lighter brown than the thighs, 
barred with whitish ; axillary plumes brown, spotted with white ; under wing-coverts blackish brown, much marked 
with white along the edge ; tarsal feathers pale brownish. 
Ohs. home examples incline from their youth to be darker on the thighs and abdomen than others, and consequently 
a considerable variation exists in these parts in adults. As a rule the older the bird (a sure characteristic being 
the tail) the narrower are the stripes of the under surface. 
Occasionally it would appear that the tawny hue, to be noticed presently, continues to remain on the under surface, 
the stripes and the dark colouring of the underparts being as in the normally white birds. There is a beautiful 
example m this plumage in the British Museum, from Mr. Howard Saunders’s Spanish collection. 
Young. The bird of the year has the upper surface and wing-coverts of a medium or sandy brown, the feathers with 
dark shafts ; the head and hind neck tawny, with the feathers dark-centred ; primaries lighter than in the adult, 
and the outer webs similarly pervaded with grey ; the bars of the inner webs more extensive ; secondaries broadly 
tipped with dull white ; these and the greater coverts have in some examples a strong purplish lustre : upper tail- 
coverts brownish, paling into white at the tips, and with dark shafts ; tail light sandy brown, mottled on the 
central feathers, and with a deep pale tip, the whole crossed with seven or eight narrow wavy bars of dark brown, 
without any broad terminal band; in many examples the bars are undefined, and run into the mottlings of the 
interspaces ; no broad band at the tip. 
Face, ear-coverts, and sides of head concolorous with the adjacent brown parts ; the ear-coverts striated with a darker 
hue ; throat and entire under surface uniform brownish rufous, paler on the chin and with clearly defined shaft- 
lines, diminishing towards the lower parts ; abdomen, thigh-coverts, and under tail-coverts unstriated, but with 
the centres of the concealed portions of the feathers brown, showing the tendency of these parts to become dark 
with age, under wing-coverts rufescent like the breast and striped with brown, the lower series dark brown. 
With age the rufous of the under surface becomes white, the mesial lines expand at the tip into “ drops,” and thence 
into broadish stripes ; the thighs and legs become brown with darker stripes, while the belly and under tail-coverts 
are heavily dashed with the same ; the under wing-coverts become blackish brown at the same time. 
Distribution. — This powerful Eagle, the finest of the short, curved-billed genus Nisaetus, and so well known 
m Southern Europe and Northern India, has been once procured in Ceylon. It can therefore only be looked 
upon as a straggler to the island, and takes its place in our lists as such, in common with the Scavenger- Vulture 
and the Amurian Kestrel. 
Layard writes, in his notes on Ceylon ornithology ( l . c.) “ This Eagle was procured by It. Templeton, 
Esq., R. A., several years ago, and I do not know from what part of the island it was obtained. It has not fallen 
under my notice*, nor has Dr. Kelaart enumerated it amongst his acquisitions at Nuwara Elliya.” Many 
* There, notwithstanding, is a faded specimen of this Eagle in the Poole collection. It has the wing 19-5, tail 10-0, 
tarsus 4-0 inches ; the peculiar brown coloration of the exterior of the thighs is still visible, although the head and all the 
under surface are bleached. Mr. Layard writes me that he does not remember any thing about this specimen, and its 
presence, evidently as a Ceylon bird, in this collection is somewhat puzzling. Can it be that this is Dr. Templeton’s 
specimen, afterwards presented to the collection while at Sir Ivor Guest’s. 
