326 SPOTTED EAGLE. 



and can be traced through Poland to Bessarabia. A larger form 

 (which breeds occasionally in East Prussia, Poland, Galizia and 

 Transylvania), occupies the forest-region of Russia eastward and 

 southward as far as the steppes, as well as the Caucasus, Central 

 Asia to Northern China, some parts of India, Persia, and Asia 

 Minor. This is the form which nests in Turkey, the districts 

 watered by and south of the Danube, suitable localities in Italy and 

 the islands of the Mediterranean, and, sparingly, in North Africa ; 

 while, though not common in the south of Spain, I have frequently 

 seen and heard it in the Pyrenees. To Northern France, Belgium, 

 Holland, and even the wooded valleys of the Moselle and the 

 Rhine, both races are rare visitors. In winter they migrate 

 entirely from their northern — and partially from their southern 

 — haunts in Europe ; numbers ascending the Nile valley to 

 Abyssinia. The chief difference in the adults is that of size ; an 

 average male of the larger form being equal to a female of the 

 smaller. In the young of the smaller form there is usually a more 

 defined huffish patch on the nape, while the pale spots of the upper 

 parts are limited to the secondaries and wing-coverts : whereas in 

 the larger form these spots are also found on the scapulars and 

 rump. It is chiefly — if not entirely — the larger which has visited 

 the British Islands, and Mr. W. T. Blanford has decided that for 

 this the proper name is A. maculata : Gmelin's Falco ncEvius being 

 probably a Buzzard. A later name, A. clanga of Pallas, has been 

 confusingly applied, especially on the Continent, to a larger and 

 distinct species, namely the Steppe-Eagle, A. orientalis. 



The nest, almost invariably built in a tall tree, is a large flat 

 structure of sticks, with a slight lining of fresh twigs, leaves or 

 grass ; the 2-3 eggs, laid early in May, are greyish-white, streaked 

 and often boldly blotched with ruddy brown : measurements 

 2 "5 by 2'i in. Nests found on the ground in the Dobrudscha and 

 South Russia, and formerly ascribed to this species, have proved 

 to be those of the above-mentioned Steppe-Eagle. The food con- 

 sists largely of frogs, but also of reptiles, grasshoppers, small birds and 

 mammals. The loud and shrill cry is repeatedly uttered in spring. 



The general colour of the adult is warm coffee-brown or greyish- 

 brown, according to the age of the feathers. The young bird is 

 purplish-brown, with pale edges to the upper feathers — as shown in 

 the cut — and ochreous streaks on the under parts. Length of 

 wing : male 19-20 in. ; female 21-23 i"- The nostrils are round, not 

 oval ; the legs (feathered to the toes) are rather long and slender. 



