SPOTTED EAGLE. 319 



quantity of the great wood-rush. Mr. Walpole Bond, who found 

 wood-rush in some of the nests he examined, also came across 

 a recently plucked sprig of crowberry, apparently added for 

 the sake of decoration. At the end of March or early in April 

 two or exceptionally three eggs are laid ; they are white or 

 marbled and blotched with reddish brown and violet (Plate 134). 

 A single brood is reared, and, almost invariably, if the eggs 

 are destroyed the bird makes no effort to nest again that year. 

 H. B. Macpherson, in Scotland, and Mr. E. S. Cameron, in 

 America, by careful watching, taught most that we know about 

 the nesting habits of the Golden Eagle: how the young are fed 

 at first on liver, and later on carefully prepared food, birds 

 plucked and headless and rabbits denuded of their fur, and 

 finally on furred and feathered victims which they learn to tear 

 up for themselves. Until the eaglet is eleven weeks old it 

 cannot fly, and just before this feat was accomplished the 

 nestling began to screen its food with its wings when it stood 

 upon it, rending it with its beak. This is the habit of all 

 raptorial birds. 



The Golden Eagle has the legs feathered to the toes, a 

 character that distinguishes it from the White-tailed Eagle. It 

 is dark brown above and below, more tawny on the head, and 

 the long yellowish feathers on the nape are golden in bright 

 light. The beak and claws are blackish brown, the cere and 

 toes yellow, the irides deep yellowish brown. In young birds 

 the feathers have white bases, and the white basal part of the 

 tail often causes confusion with the White-tailed Eagle. Male: 

 Length, 32 ins. Wing, 24 ins. Tarsus, 37 ins. Female ; 

 Length, 35 ins. Wing, 27 ins. Tarsus, 3-9 ins. 



Spotted Eagle. Aquila fusca Brehm. 



The Spotted Eagle is a casual wanderer to the British Isles, 

 and so far as is known has occurred less than a dozen times. 



