Stray Feathers/Volume 1/February 1873/Spizaetus kienerii
Spizatus Kienerii, De Sparre.
The Rufous-bellied Hawk Eagle.
Since I published the first part of my Rough Notes, several specimens of this very handsome bird have come under my observation, and I think that a full description of an adult with dimensions recorded in the flesh can scarcely prove useless; the bird is so rare in collections, that I doubt whether any thing of the kind is on record.
This species was originally described from the Himalayas, and I am by no means sure that specimens obtained elsewhere which at present do duty for Kienerii, really belong to it.
The bird I propose to describe was an adult female, in magnificent plumage, and contained three large eggs, one in the oviduct, nearly ready for expulsion; it was shot near Darjeeling on the 8th November, at a height of about 6,000 feet.
Dimensions.-Female, length, 24; expanse, 50; wing, 17.5; the third and fourth primaries the longest; the first, 5.1, the second, 0.3 shorter; tail from vent, 10; exterior tail feathers, 0.7 shorter than central ones; tarsus, 3 ; hind toe, 2"3 ; its claw straight, 1" 18; hind toe, 1*45; its claw straight, 1*52; inner toe, 1'5 ; its claw, 1'5; bill straight from margin of cere, 1 ; do. along curve, 1*2; from gape, 1*5 ; width at gape, I'l; heig-ht at front at margin of cere, 0*65 ; length of cere only, 0*45 ; wings, when closed, reach to within 4 of end of tail ; lower tail coverts fall short of do., by 4'2.
Description.-Feet, yellow ; claws, black ; cere, yellow bill, leaden blue ; irides, brown.
Plumage.-The whole of the top and sides of the head, including the lores, cheeks, and ear coverts, the back and sides of the neck, the back, scapulars, rump, and upper tail coverts, and lesser and median wing coverts, a nearly uniform blackish brown the feathers all with more or less of metallic reflections, some greenish, some purplish; in some lights the whole of these parts appear to be almost, if not quite, black. The tail feathers are a dark chocolate brown ; the central ones, with two or three faint irregular paler patches, traces of where bars may have been; the lateral ones, with broad, but faint and irregular, paler and mottled The under surface of the tail feathers, a sort of transverse bars. silver grey, the shafts white, a broad ill-defined dusky terminal patch, and in all but the exterior feathers, four or five somewhat narrow transverse dusky bars above this. The quills are of two colors, the one set which appear to be older, dingy hair brown, the others, almost blackish brown, with faint green or purple reThe inner webs in all are paler, except quite at the reflections. tips; and above these, there are dim transverse darker bars. The first five quills are conspicuously notched on the inner web, and the second to the fifth are emarginate on the outer web. The chin, throat, and breast are white, the feathers, tinged towards the tips with pale rufous, and most of them with narrow, blackish brown lanceolate shaft stripes. The whole of the wing lining, (except the lower greater primary coverts) axillaries, sides, flanks, abdomen, tarsal ar.cl tibial plumes, vent and lower tail eoverts, brig-lit ferruginous ; most of tbe feathers dark shafted, and many of those of tbe wing- lining-, abdomen, and sides with a conspicuous, narrovA^, black, shaft stripe, and a few of the feathers just above the base of the tibia, verj broadly tipped with blackish brown, forming- a very conspicuous patch.
The bill in this species is much feebler than in any of ouf other Indian Spizaeti, and instead of a well marked sinuation or we might almost say blmit tooth, the margin in the upper mandible is almost straight. The general shape too of the that of the other species alluded to, for from bill is unlike the very base of the cere, the bill commences to slope 'down rapidly, instead of, as in the other species, the bill running out straight for a certain distance and commencing to curve downwards only from the end of the cere. The head has something of the falcon character al)Out it, and as regards coloration is a facsimile of that of F. atriceps, nobis. The toes and claws are, compared with the other Indian species of this genus^ long and slender.
I may note that a second specimen, also a female, obtained in differed in no material respect, from that locality, above described, except that it was a decidedly larger bird. Length But the wing was barely 17, and 29; tail, 12-5; tarsus, 3-5. The the bill was, if anything, feebler than that of the former. plumage differed only in having the dark bars on the lower surface of the quills, and tail feathers more strongly marked, and in having the black shaft stripes of the abdomen and sides considerably broader than in the specimen first described.
Two others, sexes not ascertained and measurements not recorded in the flesh, but with the wings 15*5 and 15,. and which I the same I therefore take for males, though everywhere duller and with the bars more distinct on the tail and wrings (indications as I believe of nonage), are of precisely the same type of colouring.
At page 201 of my Roug-h Notes, I mentioned an immature specimen of an hawk eagle hitherto identified with this species, This as having been killed near Aberdeen, many years ago. specimen is figured in Jard. and Selb., 111. Oru., pi. 66. I much doubt whether this specimen is Kienerii, at all ; if it be so, anythingaltogether different to it is in a stage of plumage that I have seen, and it may be useful to reproduce the original description.
"The bill is black, the cere of a yellowish green colour, the naked space between the bill and eyes, greenish black. The forehead, throat, sides of neck, and whole of the under parts^ pure white ; the leofs are long, the tarsi thickly clothed with white feathers j the crown of the head and nape yellowish brown,
umber brown; from the occiput spring- six or eig-ht brown feathers, foi-ming a pendant crest the whole of the upper parts of the l3ody are of a dark umber-brown the ridge of the wings is each feather with a paler margin mixed
with
elong-ated dark the tail is long, of a deep clove-brown colour, with seven narrow black bars, the tip white ; the feet are yellow, the toes i-eticulated as far as the last phalange, and armed with, powerful sharp and crooked claws, particularly those of the inLength about twenty inches; the wings, terior and hind toes. when closed, appear to reach about one-half the length of the tail ; the first quill is narrow and short, the fourth and fifth
white
the longest in the wing.