248 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I50 



distant, where it turned its head quickly to search for the source 

 of the distress call that I was making. As I raised the gun it looked 

 directly at me, and a second later it was on the ground. Its motions 

 were rapid and certain, a true bird of prey. This was a fine example 

 of the dark phase. 



Earlier, on April 8, 1947, on the upper Rio Jaque, I had a clear 

 view of one, also in dark phase, as on set wings it crossed a small 

 clearing in the forest. Another was seen here in the forest a few days 

 later. 



The dark phase of this attractive eagle in its fully colored form, 

 with heavy black barring across the lower surface of the body below 

 the black upper breast, presents a decidedly different appearance 

 from the paler coloration seen in most individuals. Gurney, who 

 received a specimen of this kind from Ecuador, believed it to repre- 

 sent a distinct species and described it as Morphnus taeniatus (Ibis, 

 1879, p. 176). For some time the few known came from South 

 America, where the bird ranges south to Bolivia and to Misiones 

 in northeastern Argentina. A specimen in the American Museum of 

 Natural History from Ecuador has the lower surface from the lower 

 breast to the under tail coverts barred somewhat sparingly with black, 

 and another from the same country has the axillars and flanks 

 heavily barred, while elsewhere on the under parts the markings 

 are reduced to scattered flecks of black. These appear to bridge 

 over to the paler, more common style. 



Lehmann (Caldasia, no. 7, 1943, pp. 172-175) has described and 

 figured a specimen from the Rio Jurado, Choco, that is almost 

 entirely blackish brown beneath, with few light markings, which, 

 as an extreme manifestation of melanism, strengthens the supposi- 

 tion that the taeniatus style is merely a color variant. 



The nesting of these birds is little known. The Penards (Vog. 

 Guyana, vol. 1, 1908, p. 409) were told that the nest was made of 

 sticks placed in the tallest trees. Kreuger (Ool. Rec, 1963, pp. 

 5-6) describes a single egg in his collection from "Polaro" ( = Potaro), 

 British Guiana as "deep cream with large pale yellow-brown spots, 

 richly dispersed round the larger end of the egg, with finer small 

 spots spread over the rest of the surface. Additionally a few pale 

 lilac-gray, smaller-sized spots are visible." The measurements are 

 73.7x53.4 mm. The dguila monuda is said to feed on the smaller 

 monkeys, large birds, and iguanas. Dr. Lehmann states that the 

 call is somewhat similar to that of the greater black hawk. 



