Volume 20, Plate XXI / Ornithology (Birds)

Crested Spizætus

Spizaetus cristatellus

Ranked as British from a single specimen said to be killed on the coast and brought to Aberdeen, this crested eagle is properly a native of Asia and Ceylon and seems extremely rare. The adult has pure white underparts and feathered tarsi, dark umber brown upper parts with paler margins, and a pendant crest of six or eight elongated brown feathers springing from the occiput; it measures about twenty inches with a long barred tail.