AQUILA CHRYSAETUS. 13 



The eggs of this Eagle vary exceedingly ; those in the plate I have 

 just referred to are the highest-coloured ones I have seen^ but are very 

 useful as showing the heau ideal at which a considerable number 

 appear to be aiming, and it requires only a very little stretch of the 

 imagination to resolve them into their varieties. The markings, still 

 preserving the intensity of those of the upper figure, are frequently 

 more evenly distributed over the egg, in spots of greater or of less 

 dimensions, sometimes thickly scattered, and sometimes very remote 

 from each other. In some eggs there is a beautiful arrangement of 

 the colouring matter into closely croAvded streams or drops, which 

 reminds one of the " golden rain '^ of a firework, — a variety also to 

 be seen in eggs of the Buzzard and Sparrow Hawk. In others the 

 spots are very minute and of a reddish-purple hue, gradually collecting 

 together, and slightly increasing in size, till they almost coalesce in 

 the centre of the large end. Again, the egg is thickly dusted all over 

 with one colour — a yellowish-brown — in several degrees of intensity, 

 and in this form is very like eggs of the Iceland Falcon. One wholly- 

 coloured egg of Mr. Walter's reminds me of the more even and uni- 

 form specimens of the Peregrine Falcon and Merlin. Of eggs with 

 the markings all very faint, and as it were foreshadowings of those on 

 the varieties to which I have alluded, I have seen a good many ex- 

 amples ; but it must not be supposed that highly-marked eggs are 

 uncommon. I am convinced, from a considerable and quite unse- 

 lected number of Golden Eagles' eggs which I have seen, that well- 

 marked specimens are the rule, not the exception. The egg which I 

 should be disposed to choose as most typical is such a one as that 

 figured by Mr. Hewitson [Eggs B. B. ed. 3. pi. iv. fig. 1] . There is 

 a purple or lilac cast about it, and the markings are agreeably shaded 

 and blended together. I have repeatedly seen eggs more or less like 

 it, and it has a character in common with the beautiful example for- 

 merly represented by him [Eggs B. B. ed. 1. pi. ii. fig. 1]. The one 

 taken out of the same nest with it has as much colour, but of quite a 

 different kind, being somewhat of the Iceland Falcon type. The 

 tendency of markings to the large instead of to the small end is to 

 be found in the eggs of many kinds of birds ; but it is so frequent in 

 Golden Eagles' as hardly to deserve to be called a variety in this 

 respect. A remarkable egg in Mr. Wilmot's cabinet has very fine 

 dots, one or two small blotches, and some long straggling lines of the 

 same colour near the larger end. In short, eggs of the Golden Eagle 

 may be found representing those of all our other birds of prey in suc- 

 cession, even including the Egyptian Vulture. 



In shape, the egg of this species varies in different specimens ; but 



