62 BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



They paid but slight attention to us, working at the nests and going for more 

 materials. 



These observations recall those of Blanford ^ who found the bird 

 common, and obtained specimens both in the highlands and in the 

 low coastal plains of Samhar. 



" It breeds on the highlands about January. I saw one nest on the top of an 

 isolated tree near a village, containing a young bird almost full grown, on 

 March 24. Several of these eagles frequently collected about carcasses in 

 company with vultures, neophrons, and crows." 



LOPHAETUS OCCIPITALIS (Daudin) 



Falco ocoipitalis Daxtdin, Traits, vol. 2, p. 40, 1800: the Auteniquoi country, 

 i. e., Knysna district, Gape Province. 



Speci^iiens collected: 



Male adult, Aletta, Sidamo, Ethiopia, March 7, 1912. 

 Five male adults, Gato River near Gardula, Ethiopia, April 3-29. 

 1912. 



The colors of the soft parts of one of the specimens collected were 

 recorded by Mearns as follows: Cere and commisural margin yel- 

 low; basal half of bill greenish gray, distal half black; toes yellow, 

 claws black; iris yellow. 



Swann ^ writes that the tail has three grayish bands on the middle 

 feathers, becoming broader and whitish on the outer ones. This 

 character does not hold and is extremely variable regardless of age, 

 sex, or season. Some specimens have as many as six or seven light 

 bands on the middle rectrices, whereas in others only three are pres- 

 ent and, in one case, these three are not true bands but merely pairs 

 of disconnected spots, one in each web, corresponding to the bars. 



Reichenow ^ writes that the tarsal feathering is white in adults 

 and white mixed with brown in younger birds. Erlanger ^ also 

 notes this. Zedlitz ^ modifies this somewhat by saying that some 

 adult individuals have a more or less yellowish tinge to the tarsal 

 feathers. However, in a series of 18 specimens (chiefly adults) I 

 find that this character is quite variable. Relatively few specimens 

 have these parts pure white. In some presumabl}' adult birds the 

 tarsal covering is more brownish than white ; in others the feathers 

 are white with brownish-black shafts. It may be that very old 

 birds have the tarsi pure white, but many breeding birds have them 

 mixed with brown. Thus, Van Someren ^° collected a female. 

 " * * * in breeding condition, though not in full adult plumage." 



5 Geol. and Zool. Abyss-, 1870, pp. 295-296. 



« Synopsis of the Acclpitres, ed. 2, 1922, p. 122. 



^ Vog. Afrikas, vol. 1, p. 583. 



8Journ. f. Ornith., 1904, pp. 187-188. 



»Idem, 1910, p. 377. 



"Nor. Zool., vol. 29, 1922, p. 41. 



