OCR Text |
Show 1882.] DR. *W. BLASIUS ON BIRDS FROM CERAM. 699 54*5 57*5 56*5 55*5 55*5 22*5 25*5 23*5 24*0 31*5 5*2 5*5 5*2 5*0 4*7 9*0 9*5 90 9 0 9*3 other, coming from Gorontalo on the island of Celebes, to the kindness of Mr. G. Schneider, of Basle. The following table will show the difference :- Rostri Long. tot. Al. Oaud. culm. Tars. cm. cm. cm. cm. cm. Salvadori, minimum 70*0 „ maximum 80*0 Moluccas, ad 68*0 Celebes, ad 61*5 Ceram, juv. tf .. .. 72*5 (In the Catalogue Birds Brit. Mus. vol. i., Sharpe also states the length of the tail as much less-for the male ad. 9"5 inches = 24*2 cm., and for the female ad. 11 inches = 28*l cm.) At first I believed, on account of these widely differing proportions, and particularly ou account of the much longer tail, that I had before me another species of tbe group of Haliaetus. But this supposition is contradicted by the fact that, till now, no other species has been found in the region of the Moluccas, and that this very same species has been found by Hoedt on the island of Ceram (Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas), and observed by Rosenberg (Malayischer Arch. p. 322) near the mouth of the Bobot river. Besides, the feathering of the leg (only in front on the upper third of the tarsus), the formation of the scales (in front a row of very broad plates descending nearly to the root of the toes), and the formation of the claws are exactly the same as in the old specimens mentioned above. Of the other species of Haliaetus very well represented in the Brunswick Museum, the longer-tailed H. leucoryphus (Pall.) approaches the nearest in size and formation of bill and legs. But our specimen from Ceram differs from it, apart from the different colouring, in the wider and deeper descending scales of the tarsus, and in the smaller development of the hind claw. I propose therefore to classify the bird for the present as C. leucogaster, and suppose that this species has when young a considerably longer tail than when old, and that the average measurements of Salvadori have been taken exclusively from old individuals. With this opinion coincide more or less the opinions of Mr. E. F. von Homeyer of Stolp, of Dr. Alph. Dubois of Brussels, of Dr. Rud. Blasius of Brunswick, and of Mr. Henry Seebohm of London, the first three of whom have at m y request seen and compared the bird with H. leucoryphus, and distinctly stated the difference. I also owe to the just named gentlemen (principally to Mr. H . Seebohm) on this occasion some precise communications about the variability of the length of tail in the large birds of prey in general, and about the often surprisingly greater dimensions of the plumage of the young individuals of Accipitres in comparison with the old ones, which have essentially confirmed me in classifying the present specimen as H. leucogaster. The specimen is in the Brunswick Museum. |