PANAY SERPENT EAGLE.
- Spilornis panayensis Steere, List Birds & Mams. Steere Exped. (1890), 7; Grant, Ibis (1896), 527; Whitehead, Ibis (1899), 93; Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 266; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 42.
- Spilornis holospilus Bourns and Worcester, Minnesota Acad. Nat. Sci. Occ. Papers (1894), 1, 44 (part).
Si-cub′, Bohol.
Bohol (McGregor); Guimaras (Steere Exp.); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Negros (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Keay); Panay (Steere Exp.); Romblon (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Tablas (Bourns & Worcester, Celestino).
“Adult male.—Head black, feathers of crest sulphur-white at base, then black, narrowly edged with whitish; rest of upper surface with wings light ashy brown, all the feathers edged with whitish. Tail broadly tipped with white and with two broad whitish bars and part of a third basal one; throat bluish ash, unmarked; rest of under surface pale cinnamon, shaded with ash and spotted and banded as in S. holospilus. Length, 502; wing, 317; tail, 229; tarsus, 71. Distinguished from S. holospilus by its small size and pale coloring.” (Steere.)
The validity of this species is somewhat doubtful. Bourns and Worcester consider that it “was founded on differences due to change of season and to individual variation.” Grant thinks “that S. panayensis may fairly be recognized as a distinct form.”
Genus BUTASTUR Hodgson, 1843.
Bill small, its edge slightly sinuate; wings moderate, primaries cut on inner web; first primary short; secondaries much shorter than primaries; tarsus feathered in front for a short distance, a row of large hexagonal scales in front, rest of tarsus with small hexagonal scales.