“Adult female.—Similar to the male but larger. Length, 660; wing, 419; tail, 267; tarsus, 95.” (Sharpe.)
187. SPILORNIS HOLOSPILUS (Vigors).
PHILIPPINE SERPENT EAGLE.
- Buteo holospilus Vigors, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1831), 96.
- Spilornis holospilus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874), 1, 293; Hand-List (1899), 1, 266; Grant, Ibis (1894), 503; ibid. (1896), 110; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 42.
Basilan (Everett, Steere Exp.); Bongao (Everett); Catanduanes (Whitehead); Cebu (Everett, Bourns & Worcester); Leyte (Everett); Luzon (Everett, Meyer, Steere Exp., Whitehead, McGregor); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Mindanao (Cuming, Everett, Koch & Schadenberg, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Celestino, Goodfellow); Mindoro (Steere Exp., Everett, Porter); Samar (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Sulu (Bourns & Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester).
“Adult.—Above pale brown with a purplish gloss and the feathers irregularly spotted or margined with white at their tips; hind neck and interscapulary region lighter than the rest of the back, the feathers tipped with pale rufous, and ocellated with large rounded spots of white; head much crested, ashy black, the feathers slightly margined with rufous and spotted with white; sides of face and throat ashy gray, the latter varied with oval markings of whitish; under surface of body very light tawny, ocellated all over with spots or half bars of white, the latter more distinct on the under tail-coverts; the thighs and under wing-coverts a little darker and more thickly spotted with white; wing-coverts dark brown, minutely spotted with white; primaries brown, whitish on inner web, black at tip, and crossed with a black bar about the middle of the feather; secondaries pale brown like the back, with white tips and faint indications of obsolete whitish bars on the feathers; upper tail-coverts brown, darker before the tips, which are white, and having remains of rounded white spots concealed or obscured by the brown color of the feathers; tail pale brown, narrowly tipped with whity brown, and crossed with two broad bands of blackish brown, one subterminal and the other about the middle of the tail, a band of light brown before the lower black band, and a broad band of whity brown between the two black bands. Length, 635; culmen, 46; wing, 368; tail, 254; tarsus, 90.
“Young.—Above brown, the feathers tipped with pale rufous, the white bases very conspicuous especially on the wing-coverts, which appear lighter than the back; head, which is largely crested, and hind neck rufous, the feathers buffy white at the base; with a chestnut-brown subterminal spot; ear-coverts and sides of face uniform dark brown; throat white; rest of under surface of body fulvous washed with rufous, more especially on the breast-feathers, which have dark brown shafts; under wing-coverts fulvous, washed with tawny rufous; primaries dark brown, secondaries rather lighter like the back, and tipped with buffy white, all the quills white at base of inner web, and barred with darker brown, showing more plainly underneath, as the interspaces are whitish ashy; tail brown, washed with rufous near the base, and slightly tipped with fulvous, crossed with four or five bars of dark brown, the basal ones indistinct and more or less dissolved into mottlings.” (Sharpe.)
From Cape Engaño we have received an immature female, which has the head and upper mantle whitish buff, with brown shaft-spots; there is the beginning of a short deep black superciliary band extending above the eye, while a few feathers of a more adult plumage are beginning to make their appearance on the occiput; these are brownish red, with a white subterminal black tip. (The appearance of this black eyebrow-stripe is very puzzling, as it does not appear in the adult plumage; it may be part of an intermediate plumage or fade with age and wear to the dark brown of the adult.) General color above brown, with irregular, ill-defined reddish white spots on either web; tail dark brown with two wide brownish white bands across the terminal half; chin and throat whitish buff. Sides of the head and under parts pale buff, with brownish red shaft-stripes, widest on the terminal half; thighs buff, with wide chestnut middles, constricted at intervals, so as to form ill-defined buff spots down the sides of the feathers, one or two half grown adult feathers on the left thigh. Wing, 386; tail, 272; tarsus, 86.
“Although somewhat peculiar in plumage and large in size, I have no hesitation in referring this specimen to S. holospilus, and Mr. Whitehead shares the same opinion.” (Grant.)