ACCIPITRES. 
FALC0N1D2E. 
aquildle. 
Genus SPILORNIS. 
Bill longer than in the last genus ; festoon slightly pronounced, the culmen curved from the 
cere ; the cere advanced. Nostrils oval, oblique, protected by the loral plumes. Eyelid furnished 
with long lashes. Wings short, rounded, the 4th and 5th quills the longest. Tail moderately 
long and ample. Tarsus slender, feathered slightly below the knee, protected with small hexa- 
gonal scales both in front and behind. Toes short, furnished at the tip with transverse scales, 
changing at their bases into the reticulated scales of the tarsus ; claws short and rather straight. 
Head furnished with a heavy rounded crest, extending entirely across the occiput. 
SPILOENIS SPILOGASTEE. 
(THE CEYLONESE SEEPENT-EAGLE.) 
Buteo bacha. Vigors, Mem. Raffi. p. 650 (1830, nec Daud.). 
Ilcematornis spilogaster, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xvi. 1852, p. 351; Kelaart, Pro- 
dromus, Cat. p. 114 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1853, xii. p. 100. 
Ilcematornis cheela, Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 185o, xii. p. 99. 
Spilornis bacha, Holdsworth, Proc. Zool. Sqc. 1872, p. 412; Legge, Ibis, 18 /o, p. 27/. 
Spilornis spilogaster, Walden, Ibis, 1873, p. 298; Gurney, Ibis, 1878, p. 100. 
Spilornis cheela , Legge, Ibis, 1874, p. 9. 
Spilornis melanotis, Sharpe, Cat. Birds, i. p. 289 (1874). 
The Harrier-Eagle, Buzzard-Eagle, in India (pt.) ; The Cheela Eagle, Ceylon Eagle, “ Cheela ,” 
Kelaart and Layard ; Serpent-Eagle, Europeans in Ceylon. 
Bajaliya, Sinhalese ; Cudoombien, Tam., in Ceylon (apud Layard). 
ad. similis S. baches, sed ubique pallidior, gutture pallide cinerascente nec nigricanti-brunneo : pectoris et abdo- 
minis maculis ocellatis minoribus, minus rotundatis et saturatiore brunneo circumdatis : pedibus obscure flavican- 
tibus : iride flava. 
Adult female. Length to front of cere 22'0 to 23-5 inches ; culmen from cere T3 to 1*4 ; wing 15'3 to 15-8 ; tail 9-0 
to 10'5 ; tarsus 3'3 to 3'4 ; middle toe l - 8, its claw (straight) 0-9 ; height of bill at cere 0-65. 
Male. Length to front of cere 21 - 5 to 22'5 inches; wing 14 - 5 to 15’7 (average of seven examples lo - l); tarsus 3’2 
to 3-3. 
Obs. The above measurements are taken from a series of examples shot in the low country or on its hill-borders, 
representing a small type of our Serpent-Eagle inhabiting these districts. The majority of examples from the 
Kandyan province are considerably larger, and may be fairly held to constitute a bigger race of the species, as will 
be seen from the following dimensions, taken from several specimens : — 
Adult female. Length to front of cere 25-0 inches ; culmen l‘5j wing 15-9 to 16*6 ; expanse 52-5; tail 11‘0 to 1 To ; 
tarsus 3-4 to 3’5 ; middle toe 1'8. 
Male. Wing 1-5 to 15-8 inches. 
Iris golden yellow, the external edge, in some, indented with black ; cere and loral skin varying from greenish yellow 
