1252. Baza jerdoni

1252. Baza jerdoni.

Blyth's Baza.

? Falco lathami, apud Tickell, J. A. S. B. ii, p. 660 (1833), nec Gray ; Walden, Ibis, 1876, p. 340. Lophastur jerdoni, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xi, p. 464 (1842); xv, p. 4. Aviceda sumatrensis, Lafr. Rev. Zool. 1848, p. 210. Baza jerdoni, Blyth, Cat. p. 18; Sharpe, Ibis, 1893, p. 657. Baza sumatrensis, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. i, p. 357, pl. xi, fig. 1; Hume, S. F. iii, p. 313; vii, p. 198 note; Hume & Dav. S. F. vi, p. 25; Hume, Cat. no. 58 bis; Gurney, S. F. viii, p. 444; id. Ibis, 1880, p. 471; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 209. Baza incognita, Hume, S. F. iii, p. 314 (1875).

Coloration. Adult. Middle of crown and the long Spizaetus-like crest black; forehead, supercilia, sides of neck, and hind-neck deep rufous with black streaks ; lores grey with black bristles; upper parts from the neck dark brown; scapulars and upper tail-coverts with broad dark ends; quills and tail-feathers lighter brown, with broad blackish subterminal bands and narrower bands further up—4 or 5 altogether, including the last, on the quills, and 3 on the tail; lower surface of quills and tail-feathers whitish, and the dark bands, except the last two on the quills and the last on the tail, indistinct; chin, throat, and middle of breast white, with a narrow median black line on the throat; sides of throat and of upper breast rufous; lower breast and abdomen with broad alternating cross-bars of dark rufous and white.

Younger birds are paler throughout and have four distinct tail-bands ; the head and neck are pale rufous above with black shaft-stripes, the dorsal feathers and upper wing-coverts have pale rufous edges; the crest-feathers have a long white tip. The median dark band to the throat is often wanting ; the throat and breast are pale rufous with white edges to the feathers, and the lower breast and abdomen are banded with pale rufous. There is probably also a still younger (nestling) plumage, described by Blyth as resembling beneath that of a young Accipiter, and the " mesial dark streak, flanked with whitish, may be traced almost to the vent."

Length of a male 18.5; tail 9 ; wing 13; tarsus 1.45; mid-tot without claw 1.5 ; bill from gape 1.35.

Bill and cere blackish; irides bright yellow; legs and feet white slightly tinged with blue (Hume).

Distribution. Sikhim, Tenasserim, Malay Peninsula, and Sumatra. If Tickell's Falco lathami was this bird, as is very probable, a specimen was once obtained in South-western Bengal (Manbhoom). This is a very rare species, only one specimen has been recorded from Sikhim and one from Tenasserim.