214 Mr. J. H. Gurney's Notes on 



to its not having been exposed to tlie weather." This Eagle 

 and its mother are now preserved in the British Museum, and 

 are certainly the most richly coloured Golden Eagles that I 

 have ever seen from any locality. They are both of them very 

 dark-coloured birds ; and some of the newly acquired feathers of 

 the young one approach more nearly to an actual black than 

 those of any other specimen which 1 have examined. These 

 birds are also especially noticeable for the colouring of the 

 thighs, Avhich are deep purplish brown on their outer, and 

 rich rufous on their inner sides, the latter being also the 

 colour of the tarsi, as well as of the under-tail coverts ; the 

 abdomen is of a dark hue, not materially differing from that 

 of the exterior surface of the thighs. The striking manner in 

 which the peculiarities of colouring seen in the old bird 

 are reproduced in its oflFspring is, I think, particularly in- 

 teresting. 



The British Museum also possesses a very similarly, though 

 rather less deeply coloured specimen, which formed part of 

 Major-Geiieral Hardwicke's Indian collection. 



Whilst on the subject of the variations of colouring to which 

 the Golden Eagle is subject, I must not omit to refer to the 

 quotation from the writings of Mr. N. A. Severtzoff, for which 

 we are indebted to Mr. Dresser"^, and which seems to imply 

 that, in the opinion of that eminent Russian naturalist, there 

 exist in Central Asia and in the Southern Ural Golden Eagles 

 in which the white base of the tail, elsewhere an indication 

 of immaturity, is a permanent character. Of the correctness 

 of this opinion I am not in a position to judge ; but I have 

 ascertained, by the examination of specimens, that the white 

 on the base of the tail of the Golden Eagle disappears with 

 the advance of age in the following countries — North Ame- 

 rica, Scotland, Sweden, Erance, Spain, and Greece, I have 

 also seen two Asiatic specimens (Captain Unwin's Hazara 

 female, and the female obtained in India by Major-General 

 Hardwicke, to both of which I have already alluded) in which 

 there was no white on the rectrices beyond a very slight mot- 

 tling on the inner webs. 



* Vide Ibis for 1875, p. 100. 



