Mr. H. Saunders on the Bii-ds of Southern Spain. 61 



18. Aquila fulva. " Aguila real/' 



Breeds in every mountain-raoge. In the Sierra Nevada it is 

 considered the commonest of the large Raptores. I know of one 

 eyry in the Gaitanes, and observed the species in Mallorca. 



19. Aquila imperialis. '' Aguila Imperial." 



"Aguila real" is the usual name near Seville, where it is 

 tolerably abundant, nesting in the trees of the Cotos del Rey 

 and Doiiana. All the adult Spanish specimens I have exa- 

 mined, amounting to about a score, have more white in the 

 feathers covering the carpal joints, and less on the scapulars, 

 than average specimens from Eastern Europe. 



20. Aquila n^vioides. 



Undoubted Spanish specimens have been so named by Mr. 

 J. H. Gurney and other high authorities; and until quite re- 

 cently (Ibis, 1869, p. 402) I fully believed that the tawny- 

 coloured birds existing in many Spanish museums, as well as 

 in Lord Lilford's, my own, and other collections in this country, 

 belonged to this species. But now, whilst by no means denying 

 the occurrence of true A. riavioides in Spain, I am convinced by 

 the inspection of a large series that these cafe-au-lait-coloured 

 birds are simply A. impeinalis in immature plumage. There 

 are now before me six specimens, presenting every gradation of 

 plumage, from pale-tawny up to adults with white shoulders, 

 all of which, allowing for sex, agree in their dimensions — whilst 

 they one and all differ materially from A. ncevioides from Abys- 

 sinia, and from four adult specimens of A. clanga (generally 

 admitted to be the same) shot off their nests in Southern Russia. 

 In these, and in the three living specimens of A. ncevioides in 

 the Zoological Gardens, the closed wings almost reach to the 

 extremity of the tail ; but in adult A. imperialis, alive or in skin, 

 and in these tawny birds, the tail extends far beyond the tips 

 of the folded wings, and the general dimensions are also larger. 

 Major Irby broached the idea of their being identical with A. 

 imperialis in July last ; but at that time I had not before me so 

 complete a series, nor had I then been able to examine their 

 sterna, as I have since done, finding they do not differ appre- 

 ciably from those of true A. imperialis. With regard to the 



