BAZA LOPIOTES. 
(THE INDIAN CRESTED FALCON.) 
Falco lophotes , Temm. PL Col. i. pi. 10 (1823). 
Buteo cristatus, Bonn, et Vieill. Enc. Meth. iii. p. 1220 (1823). 
Baza syama, Hodgs. J. A. S. B. v. p. 777 (1836). 
Baza lophotes, Gray^ List Gen. B. p. 4 (1840); Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 17 (1849); 
id. J. A. S. B. xix. p. 325 (1850); Kelaart, Prodromus, p. 115 (1852); Layard, An n. 
& Mag. N. H. 1853, xii. p. 102; Horsf. & Moore, Cat. B. Mus. E. I. Co. i. p. 62. 
no. 72 (1854) ; Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. Ill (1862) ; Hume, Hough Notes, ii. p. 337 (1870) ; 
Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, p. 415; Sharpe, Cat. B. i. p. 352 (1874); Walden, Ibis, 
1876, p. 341. 
Hytiopus syama , Hodgs. J. A. S. B. x. p. 27 (1841). 
Hytiopus loplxotes , Blyth, J. A. S. B. xii. p. 312 (1843). 
Pernis lophotes, Kaup, Contr. Orn. 1850, p. 77. 
Baza indicus, Bp. Rev. et Mag. de Zool. 1854, p. 535. 
Cohy Falcon, Lath. Gen. Hist. i. p. 165, pi. x. (1821). 
Blaclc-crested Kite, “Baza,” Cohy Falcon, Cohy Pern, in India. 
Cohy of the Parbutties ; Syama, lit. “ Black,” Nepal. 
Adult male,*. Length to front of cere 12-5 inches; culmen from cere 08; wing 9-2 to 9-4, expanse 30-5; tail 5-0 
to 5'5 ; tarsus l - 05 to l'l ; middle toe I/O to 1*1, claw (straight) 047 ; height of bill at cere 035. 
A 1 o difference in size exists between examples from Nepaul, Ceylon, and Pinang. 
Iris brownish red ; cere bluish leaden ; bill pale bluish leaden, darker at the sides above the tooth ; legs and feet pale 
bluish, claws black. 
Entire head, throat, body above, wing-coverts, longer scapulars, quills, tail, and body beneath from the upper breast 
black, with a dark green gloss above and on the under tail-coverts. A long occipital crest of 3 or 4 narrow 
feathers 2£ inches in length ; tertials and some of the concealed scapulars rufous towards the tips ; abroad edging 
of the same near the extremities of the secondaries; tertials and scapulars white across the middle, showing 
conspicuously on the longer feathers, the terminal portions of which are black. 
Chest pure white, succeeded by a band of deep vinous chestnut, many of the feathers of which are edged with black ; 
below this the black sides of the breast are overlaid with long ochraceous white plumes, meeting across the body 
below the band, and barred down the sides with the chestnut ; lower surface of quills and tail stone-grey, with a 
dark patch near the tips on the outer portion of the latter. 
The black plumage underlying the stiff breast-plumes is a singular character in this bird’s attire. 
Young. In the bird of the year the anterior tooth is less developed than in the adult, and the second or posterior 
notch is not developed ; the crest is of much the same length as in the old bird. 
The chief characteristic is the great amount of white and rufous, handsomely intermingled, on the wings and scapulars. 
Head and upper surface dusky black, with a rufescent tinge on the back-feathers everywhere but at the tips ; the 
scapulars and tertials are vinaceous rufous, with their centre portions white, and a bar of the same extends across 
the outer webs of the secondaries in the same position as the rufous edgings in the adult ; lateral tail-feathers 
paler than the rest and tipped with white ; throat a brownish or paler black than the head ; the white of the chest 
narrower than in the adult ; the pectoral band a paler and handsomer rufous, variable in width, and only continued 
in bars on the breast-plumes to a very limited extent ; the abdomen and underlying breast-feathers with pale 
edgings ; under surface of tail wanting the black patch. 
* An example in the British Museum from Nepaul, which has a wing of 9-4 and is not sexed, may be a female ; a 
Ceylonese male, however, measures 9-3. 
