132 LIST 07 DIURNAL BIKD3 OF PRBT. 



APPENDIX D. 



On the Spotted Eagles obtained in Cornwall and Ireland. 



I HAVE stated in my Notes that after examining the two 

 Spotted Eagles killed in Cornwall, I considered that they 

 belonged to the larger race {Aquila clanga) ; Mr. Seebohm, 

 in his work on British Birds, p. 107, suggests, on the con- 

 trary, that probably both these birds, and certainly the one 

 which is preserved in the Truro Museum, are, in reality, 

 examples of the smaller race {A. pomarina). 



With reference to this suggestion, I wish to observe that 

 neither of these birds has the fulvous nuchal patch peculiar 

 to the immature A. pomarina : the Truro specimen is certainly 

 without it, and the late Mr. Rodd assured me that it was 

 also absent, as it appeared to me to be, in the other Cornish 

 specimen, which was in his possession when I saw it ; and 

 although this bird was so cased as only partially to show the 

 back of the neck, I think that I should have been able to 

 detect the nuchal patch had it been present, and that I 

 should not have failed to do so. 



I may add that Mr. A. G. More, who, at my request, has 

 very kindly examined the Irish-killed Spotted Eagle in the 

 Museum of Trinity College, Dublin, informs me that in 

 that specimen there is also " no trace of a fulvous nuchal 

 patch." 



As these three specimens are all immature, I believe the 

 absence of a nuchal patch is a sufficient justification for 

 referring them to A. clanga, although, if this identification 

 be correct, they are small individuals of that larger race, 

 but I think not so small as to be necessarily excluded 

 from it. 



