NISAETUS PENNATUS. 
(THE BOOTED EAGLE.) 
Falco pennatus, Gm. S. N. i. p. 272 (1788); Temm. PI. Col. i. pi. 33 (1824). 
Aquila pennata, Vig. Zool. Journ. i. p. 337 (1824); Gould, B. of Europe, i. pi. 9 (1837); 
Fritsch, Vog. Eur. tab. 5. figs. 3, 4, 5 (1858) ; Kelaart’s Prodromus, Cat. p. 114 (1852) ; 
Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 98; Jaub. et Barth. Bich. Orn. p. 36, 
pi. 3 (1859) ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. i. p. 63 ; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 411 ; Shelley, 
B. of Egypt, p. 207 (1872) ; Legge, Str. Feath. vol. iv. p. 249 ; Dresser, B. Eur. pt. xxxii. 
(1874). 
Butaetus pennatus, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. xiv. p. 174 (1845). 
Hieraetus pennatus, Blyth, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. xv. p. 7 (1846) ; Hume, Bough Notes, i. 
p. 182 (1869). 
Nisaetus pennatus, Sharpe, Cat. Birds, i. p. 253 (1874). 
Le Faucon patu, Briss. Orn. vi. App. p. 22, pi. 1 (1760). 
The Dwarf Eagle, Sportsmen in India. 
Bagati Jumiz, Hind., lit. “Garden Eagle ;” also Gilheri-mar, lit. “ Squirrel-killer;” Oodatal 
Gedda, Tel., lit. “Squirrel Kite ” ( apud Jerdon). 
Punja-Prdndu, Tam., lit. “Field-Kite.” 
Bajaliya, Sinhalese. 
Adult male. Length to front of cere 19-5 to 21-0 inches ; culmen from cere 1-02 to 1'2 ; wing 14-5 to 15-5; tail 8 - 2 
to 8-5 ; tarsus 2-3 to 2-4; mid toe 1'5 to 1-7, claw (straight) 0-75 to 08. 
Adult female. "W ing 15-0 to 16-4 ; tail 8-5 to 9 '5 ; tarsus 2-3 to 2-5 ; mid toe T5 to 1-7 ; culmen from cere 1T5 to 1-3. 
This limit of wing is from a series of Bengal, Turkish, and Spanish examples. Mr. Mac Vicar’s specimen, referred to 
below, which was a female and an Indian-bred bird, measured 15 - 7 in the wing ; a male, in my own collection, 
purchased from Messrs. Whyte and Co., 15-2. 
Iris varying from pale brown to chestnut-brown ; cere yellow ; bill black at the tip, paling into leaden or bluish at the 
base, and with the gape yellow ; feet yellow ; claws black. 
Head and hind neck brownish tawny, darkest on the forehead and crown (in some paler or fulvous tawny), the shafts 
of the feathers dark and their margins pale : back, rump, scapulars, lesser and greater secondary wing- coverts 
dark earth-brown, with the edges of the feathers slightly paler ; median wing-coverts, uppermost tertials, and 
some of the scapular feathers pale brownish, darkening towards the shaft of the feather ; primaries and secondaries 
blackish brown, with obsolete bars on the light portions of the inner webs and the extreme tips whitish ; upper 
tail-coverts sandy fulvous ; tail blackish brown, lighter than the tips of the quills ; traces of obsolete transverse 
marks exist in many specimens; the inner webs of the lateral feathers mottled with whitish. 
Humes of the lores and round the eye black; cheeks, ear-coverts, and a space below them dark tawny, with a narrow 
blackish-brown moustachial stripe; throat and fore neck buff, paling slightly on the whole under surface and 
under wing into buff-white, the throat marked with central stripes concolorous with the ear-coverts ; these 
become narrower on the chest, and gradually change into shaft-lines on the breast and flanks and secondary under 
wing- coverts ; primary under coverts spotted with dark brown. The amount of striation on the under surface 
i aries much, and some examples have the stripes confluent across the throat. 
l)ai l form. The plumage above has the same character as the foregoing, but is much darker throughout both as regards 
body and the w ings and tail ; the light portions of the wing-coverts and tail are very much darker than in the 
