200 JOURNAL, BOMB AY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIII. 



to one, and the answer would be no ; it should be just the other way about. 

 This fact alone should have decided that there was something wrong. 



The Steppe in most cases is certainly Impeiial Eagle size and resembles the 

 immature plumage of A. heliaca, except that in the latter the breast is striated, 

 which is never the case in A. bifasciata. The separation of these two is, no 

 doubt, reasonable ; for though resembling each other in the young plumage, it 

 is there the resemblance ceases and A. bifasciata n6ver becomes dark like 

 the adult heliaca. 



The excuse for the Tawny and the Steppe being taken for different phases 

 of each other, is justifiable, except for one important structural difference, viz., 

 the nostril, as otherwise they resemble each other very closely in colouring, 

 habits, flight and even their call. Avery distinctive feature of A. bifasciata 

 is the two bars on either wing, formed by the white tips to the secondaries 

 and greater coverts and conspicuous in most specimens, even at a great height 

 up, but unfortunately this feature is not constant. I have seen specimens in 

 which the secondaries and coverts themselves were so light and faded, bleached 

 perhaps from exposure, that the white tips were hardly noticeable and the bars 

 very indistinct, if traceable. Then, again, a Tawny Eagle will often be found 

 to have light tips to the coverts, forming a hazy bar on the wing, not at all 

 unlike that of A. bifasciata. If this were all the difference, viz., the white 

 bar and size, for the Steppe is usually bigger than the Tawny, they might safely 

 be classed as one species, one being resident in India and the other a winter 

 visitor from the north ; but the difference in the shape of the nostril must keep 

 them apart, but strangely enough here too the characteristic is not constant. 

 Some specimens have the long oval, like A. heliaca ; others again with the line 



on the outer edge broken in the centre, thus > j ; some are broader at the 

 lower end than at the top, thus / n, or even vice versa, but though varying 



in detail, the actual long elongated oval remains more or less the same and can 

 never be taken for the almost round, though still higher than broad, nostril of 

 A. vindhiana. 



Yet this point was seemingly not taken into account when A. bifasciata was 

 considered to be a phase of A. vindhiana. 



The young plumages of A. vindhiana are so very variable and in many 

 cases seem to pass into those of A. bifasciata or those of the latter into those 

 of the former, that to take one for the other, without looking at the nostril, is 

 quite excusable, as one [A. bifasciata') might easily have been regarded as the 

 northern migratory form of the other. 



However, the fact remains, that in the case where there is an important 

 structural difference, the two species should have been considered as one and 

 the sarao bird for a long time, whereas in another instance, where the chief 

 difference lies in a minute brown-hair like line (the shaft) dividing the white 

 band across the breast feathers in two, the point has been generally accepted 

 as sufficient to separate birds and give specific rank ! 



