52 
SPIZAETUS KELAAETI. 
Chin, throat, and fore neck creamy white, with a very broad, mesial, black stripe, and with two others, less clearly 
defined, passing from the gape down the sides of the throat, and spreading out over its lower part ; cheeks and 
ear-coverts boldly striped with black, the edges of the feathers eoncolorous with the sides and back of neck ; chest, 
breast, flanks, and all the lower parts, including the legs and under tail-coverts, sienna-brown, darkest on the 
flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts; the feathers of the chest with wide and deep marginal indentations of white, 
and the breast, flanks, thighs, abdomen, and under tail-coverts barred with straight, complete bands of white, the 
shaft being of the same colour; bars on the thighs narrow, but everywhere else broad, the brown interspaces on 
the sides of the breast and on the under tail-coverts with their lower edges darker than the rest ; tarsi pale brown, 
with whitish tips to the feathers ; lesser and median under wing-coverts eoncolorous with the chest and narrowly 
barred with white ; the greater series white, crossed with blackish-brown bars ; under surface of the light portions 
of the quills and tail-feathers greyish white. 
Obs. The above description is combined from the examination of several fully-sized females, exhibiting each a 
different amount of intensity in the colour of the crown and hind neck, but none of them possessing the extremely 
dark features characteristic of adult Nepaul birds, or any inclination to the very broad chin-stripe of these latter, 
though this character is variable in that species. The older the Ceylonese birds become, no doubt the darker would 
be the head, and the bolder the chin and moustachial stripes, although I do not think they would ever acquire the 
same degree of melanism as the Indian species ( Spizaetus nipalensis). 
I have unfortunately no data of the dimensions of any ascertained adult males ; but the following of an immature 
bird, shot by Mr. Bligh, and the subject of the background figure in my Plate, will give some idea of the size 
attained by that sex. 
Young male, apparently at the outset of the 2nd year : — Wing 10 '3 inches ; tail 11‘75; tarsus 4*5 ; mid toe 2*3, its claw 
(straight) 1*4 ; hind claw 1*7. (Two presumed males, in the British Museum, of Spizaetus nipalemis, have the 
wings 17*0 and 17*3 respectively; and an ascertained male, recorded at p. 213 of ‘Bough Notes,’ measures 17*8, 
which, in view of the respective sizes of the females in the two races, will fairly represent that of adult males of 
Spizaetus lcelaarti .) 
Above brown, the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts conspicuously margined with white as in the smaller species 
(Spizaetus ceylonensis ) ; crown with the centres of the feathers dark brown, paling into fulvous at the margins ; 
rest of the head and hind neck paler, the edges of the feathers pale fulvescent ; crest well developed, the feathers 
black, deeply tipped with white ; greater wing-coverts pale brown, with much white on the inner webs and at the 
tips ; primaries and secondaries blackish brown, with paler smoky-brown bars than in the adult ; the inner webs 
white towards the base ; tail blackish brown, crossed with four pale brownish bands ; the black interspaces and 
terminal band narrower than in the adult ; tip whitish. 
Chiu, throat, and fore neck white ; the chin unstriped, a few blackish-brown drop-shaped marks on the throat, spreading 
laterally over the fore neck ; chest-feathers pale sienna-brown, indented at the sides with bar-like spots of white ; 
breast, flanks, abdomen, and under tail-coverts pale brownish, barred with complete white bands, wider than the 
brown interspaces, which are darker on the flanks than on the centre of the breast; thighs barred more narrowly 
than the breast, the brown hue eoncolorous with that of the sides ; tarsi pale brownish, the feathers tipped with 
whitish ; under wing-coverts white, spotted with sepia-brown. 
Obs. I discriminated (loc. cit .) this Hawk-Eagle from the Indian species ( Spizaetus nipalensis), having made a careful 
examination of all the examples to hand in the British, Indian, and Norwich Museums, to aid me in my conclusions ; 
and the diagnosis of the distinctive characteristics of the two species, given in my article, will, I think, be sufficient 
to establish the Ceylonese bird as a good subspecies or local race, which I have named after Dr. Kelaart, who first 
brought to notice the existence of the species in Ceylon. F or the benefit of my Ceylon readers and others who 
have not seen my remarks in ‘ The Ibis,’ I now recapitulate in substance the remarks I there made. 
The Ceylonese bird differs from the Indian in the peculiar barring of the entire under surface from the throat down- 
wards, and in its very large feet and claws, the latter of which are especially noteworthy. Furthermore, it does 
not appear to acquire the black head and cheeks and the very broad black throat-stripe which are characteristic of 
Spizaetus nipalensis. In this latter bird the chest is usually dark brown, the centres of the feathers consisting of 
a broad dark brown “ drop ” or stripe, which pales off into an unbroken fulvous-brown margin, while in others the 
whole feather is sepia-brown, with slight marginal indentations of white ; this coloration is continued in most 
examples down to the breast, about the middle or upper half of which the barred feathers commence, and in 
which the white band is more or less irregular and interrupted at the shaft by the brown hue of the feather, the 
division varying from an exceedingly fine margin on each side of the dark shaft to a broad space of about ^ inch. 
In many birds these bars do not even correspond or oppose one another on each side of the shaft, amounting in 
reality to nothing more than deep indentations of white. The thighs and under tail-coverts in the Nepaul bird 
