SPILOKNIS SPILOGASTER. 
63 
generally with white and spotted on both webs with the same, the markings in some taking the form of bars ; 
primaries and secondaries dark earth-brown (this colour corresponding to the light interspaces in the adult), 
terminal portions blackish, and the rest of the feather crossed with three bars of the same ; the brown interspaces 
mottled with white at the inner edge, and the tips of all the quills deeply marked with the same ; upper tail- 
coverts tipped with white ; tail light brown, mottled transversely with white, with a subterminal band, one about 
the middle, and one at the base, of purplish black ; lateral feathers with three bars and the tips of all white, the 
inner webs white at the edge. 
Cheeks, ear-coverts, chin, and upper throat black, the feathers white at the base, and those at the lower edge of the 
gorge tipped with fulvous ; in some birds the throat is marked up to the chin with this hue ; fore neck, chest, and 
under surface chocolate-brown, light in some, dark in others, the breast marked inconspicuously with fulvous- 
brown cross rays ; the lower parts, thighs, and under tail-coverts spotted with white as in the adult, the spots 
with less dark surroundings, those on the under tail-coverts developing into bars ; under wing-coverts and 
axillary plumes concolorous with the chest, except the greater series, w'hich are blackish brown, the whole with 
large round spots of white, but covering the ground-colour less than in the adult ; external edge of wing-lining 
white ; base of quills beneath white. 
The change from this plumage , which is that of Blyth’s S. spilogaster, to the mature dress following the adult plumage in 
this article takes place in the gradual increase of the black on the head-feathers, the decrease of the pale terminal 
margins of the upper surface, the widening of the subterminal black caudal band and its adjacent light interspace, 
causing a moving up of the centre dark band, and in the gradual lessening of the light interspace above it ; the light 
transverse rays across the chest (in those birds which possess them) grow fainter, and the ocelli of the low’er parts 
extend, as a rule, more up the breast. These changes take place in the second moult. 
Hill birds in their first plumage often have the white wing-covert tippings, in the form of deep terminal margins, 
extending up the webs, on which the bar-like markings are more extensive than in low-country birds. In one 
specimen the basal portions of the mantle-feathers are fulvescent buff, showing on the surface very markedly ; 
the head-feathers do not show much of the fulvous centres, and the throat is a very dark brown, blending into the 
chocolate of the fore neck. 
Light phase of young plumage*. A pale or albescent form of plumage exists occasionally in the young of this species, 
which is analogous to the same feature in the Booted Eagle (see remarks in my article on this latter bird). 
Such an example, in my collection, shot near Kadugannawa in October 1876, has the upper surface similar to other 
birds, except that the least wing-coverts are very lightly tipped with fulvous, whereas the greater and median 
coverts have much white about them, the inner webs of the latter being almost entirely of this colour and the 
outer margined with it ; cheeks, ear-coverts, and chin black ; throat, chest, and entire under surface buff-white ; 
the feathers of the chest, sides of the breast, and flanks with large oval patches of deep brown on their terminal 
portions, which diminish on the lower parts into oval central streaks ; the long flank-feathers covering the thighs 
barred widely with a paler brown, with which the thighs are closely banded ; coverts immediately beneath the 
ulna spotted with brown ; remainder of the wing-lining white, a few of the feathers with a single dark spot near 
the tip ; base of primaries white beneath. 
Ohs. This Serpent- or Hander Eagle, as the genus is perhaps more generally styled in India, was referred to by 
Layard in his notes as Hcematornis clieela, it having been identified for him as such by Blyth in the days when it 
was not discriminated as distinct from this latter northern form. Adult specimens are still extant in the faded 
collection at Poole. Subsequent (evidently) to his acquaintance with the bird in its adult character, immature 
specimens were procured by Dr. Kelaart and himself, and sent by both gentlemen, under the impression that they 
belonged to a new species, to Blyth, by whom they were described as such under the title of H. spilogaster, by 
which name it must now stand as a Ceylonese and Sumatran bird. 
Prom the Northern- Indian Spilornis cheela it differs widely, inasmuch as it is a much smaller bird, has a paler throat, 
wants the yellowish-brown cross markings on the chest which are characteristic of the mature birds in that 
species, and differs in the character of the ocelli of the lower parts. 
As regards the South-Indian form, whether the Sp. melanotis of Jerdon, or perhaps, more properly speaking, Sp. albidus 
of Temrn., represents the common species of that part, I am unable to say ; but if it does, the Ceylon bird is its 
inferior in size. The wing in Jerdon’s type, from the foot of the Nilghiris, is 16 inches : but it is probably a 
male, as other examples in the British Museum, referred by Mr. Sharpe to that species, exceed 17 inches in the 
* This occurs in S. cheela ; there is a similar specimen in the British Museum. 
