PANDION HALIAETUS. 
123 
Arend, Dutch; Aguila pescadora, Spanish; Aguia presgueira, Portuguese ; Ealdsz-Sas, 
Transylvania. Mesago , Japanese (Blakiston). 
Machariya, Hind.; Verali addi pong, Tam. (Jerdon); Matchmorol, Beng. ; Macharang, 
N epaul ; Wonlet, Arracan; He-pew, “Fish-Tiger,” Chinese (Swinhoe). 
Adult female. Length to front of cere 20-0 to 23-0 inches ; culmen from cere 1’5 to 165 ; wing 1.9-5 to 2°-5 ; tad 
8*0 to 9*0 ; tarsus 2*2 to 2*3; longer anterior or middle toe 1*7 to 2'0, its claw (straight) 1*15, eig o i a 
cere 0*55. Weight 3| lb. {Jerdon). 
Male. Wing 18-0 to 19-0 inches ; tarsus 2-0 to 2-2 ; middle toe 1-6 to 1-8. 
The above measurements are taken from a series of Asiatic examples, one from Beloochistan being the largest. 
Iris yellow ; cere plumbeous ; bill black, paling to bluish at the gape and base of under mandible ; legs and feet greenish 
in some, yellowish in others ; claws black. _ . , , . . . 
The colours of the legs and feet are variously given as greenish and yellowish. An example shot m Ireland, May , 
1878, and examined in the flesh by myself, had the soft parts as follows Iris reddish yellow ; cere dark plumbeous : 
bill blackish horn-colour, paler at gape ; legs and feet pale bluish, slightly tinged with green. 
Head and hind neck white, the feathers on the centre of the crown, above the eye, a postorbital band running over 
the ears and down the side of the neck, as also the terminal half of the occipital crest blackish brown, but less m 
extent in very old birds ; some of the feathers on the side of the nape with dark shaft-stripes ; lower part ot hind 
neck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts glossy pale brown, with a purplish lustre in newly-plumaged birds ; longer 
primaries (from the first to the fifth) black-brown ; the remainder and the secondaries paler brown, tipped with 
dull white ; the inner webs white towards the base, with the brown hue partially divided into bars ; upper tail-coverts 
tinned with white ; tail sandy brown, tipped with whitish, and crossed, except in very old birds, with subdued 
bars of a darker hue ; inner webs of the lateral feathers white; the shafts of the rectriees white ; beneath white. 
The cheeks striped with brown, and the chest washed with fulvous, with streaks of brown in many examples ; flanks 
streaked partlaUy with brown ; nndor wi„ B -co,orts tod with brown nnd tipped wrth Moons, those beneath 
the edge of the wing browner than the rest. 
feathers are often rufous, this being a remnant of the immature plumage, which appears to remain m such bird , 
in other specimens the wing-coverts retain a certain amount of pale edging. 
Tounq Mr. Sharpe (loc.cit.) describes the nestling as being “covered with down of a sooty-brown colour, except 
along the centre of the back, along the carpal bend of the wing, on the breast and flanks, where it is dusky white ; 
all the feathers of the back are dark brown, with a broad tip of ochraceous buff; crown and ear-coverts blackish; 
eyebrow and throat white. 
Bird of the year*. Above chocolate-brown, the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts with sharply defined white tips to 
the feathers, separated from the brown by a buff margin ; the wing-coverts more conspicuously edged than the 
back ; the postorbital stripe broader than in the adult, and terminally edged with fulvous ; the white sides of the 
nape and the back of the neck not striated as in the adult ; primaries and secondaries deeply tipped with fulvous- 
white; upper tail-coverts margined and tipped with fulvous; tail barred with six or se\en narrow an so rown, 
conspicuous on the central rectriees; forepart of crown dark brown ; crest-feathers o ten e gee wi u \ ous , 
beneath white, chest sometimes unmarked, at others washed with fulvous and streaked with brown as in o c ,r 
Distribution. — This cosmopolitan bird of prey, as a matter of course, takes the island of Ceylon into its 
r nge visiting its northern parts in fair numbers during the cool season, a few birds continuing their course 
| 11 .jJ ex treme south. Although previously received by Lord Tweeddalc from Ceylon, Mr. Holdsworth,.m his 
catalogue {toe. at.), was the first to include the Osprey among the birds of the island, having observed it on a 
* A Tangier example and one from Nootka Sound, North America, are identical in plumage.^ 
