A Manual of Philippine Birds

by Richard C. McGregor

Measurements of several specimens have been given by me in the Philippine Journal of Science and they need not be repeated here.

Genus SPILORNIS Gray, 1840.

Culmen straight to edge of cere, from there strongly curved to tip; cutting edge of bill without notch or sinuation; a large nearly naked space between eye and bill; occipital crest full; first primary short, fifth longest and but little longer than secondaries; tarsus feathered in front for a short distance, covered throughout with hexagonal scales.

Species.

• a¹. Chest uniform brown without white spots. bacha (p. [227])
• a². Chest brown with numerous large white spots.
  • b¹. Breast and abdomen darker; chin and throat blue-gray. holospilus (p. [228])
  • b². Breast and abdomen lighter; chin and throat light gray. panayensis (p. [229])

186. SPILORNIS BACHA (Daudin).

MALAY SERPENT EAGLE.

• Falco bacha Daudin, Traité (1800), 2, 43.
• Spilornis bacha Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874), 1, 290; Hand-List (1899), 1, 299; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 42.

Balabac (Everett); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Palawan (Whitehead, Platen, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Everett). Malayan Peninsula, Greater Sunda Islands.

“Adult male.—Head largely crested, jet black with white bases to the feathers; upper surface of body brown, the wing-coverts with a few minute spots of white on the margins of the feathers; quills black, primary-coverts and secondaries narrowly tipped with white, the primaries somewhat shaded with ashy gray externally and crossed with two brown bands, one broad and very distinct, the other basal and nearly obsolete, these bars less distinct above on the secondaries, but rather plainer below; upper tail-coverts and tail blackish brown, slightly tipped with whitish, the latter crossed with a broad median band of pale ashy brown, with indications of a second basal one only visible below; sides of head and throat blackish, cheeks somewhat shaded with ashy gray; remainder of under surface of body brown, the chest uniform, the breast with distinct oval spots of white on both webs, more numerous on thighs and inclining to bars on flanks and under tail-coverts; under wing-coverts paler brown, thickly varied with oval spots of white, larger and further apart on the axillars and greater coverts. Cere yellow, bill black, horn-colored at tip; feet orange-yellow; iris yellow. Length, 622; culmen, 48; wing, 406; tail, 254; tarsus, 86.