Mr. R. B. Sharpe's Catalogue 0/ Accipitres. 215 



Of all the aberrations of colouring incident to the Golden 

 Eagle, the most curious appears to me to be that upon the 

 possessors of which the appellation of Aquila barthelemyi has 

 been bestowed ; and I regret that I am not able to add any 

 information to that which I have already recorded on this 

 subject in ' The Ibis ' for 1864, p. 339, and in the P. Z. S. for 

 1870, p. 81. I may, however, mention that the Algerian 

 example alluded to in the former of these papers possesses 

 the white shoulder-patch on one side only, in which peculiarity 

 it resembles a German specimen recorded at page 35 of the 

 ' Richesses Ornithologiques du Midi de la France/ 



In ' The Ibis ' for 1866, p. 422, I quoted an incident con- 

 firmatory of the statements of Pennant and Atkinson relative 

 to the competency of the Golden Eagle to attack the Wolf; 

 and I take this opportunity of calling attention to two recent 

 notices referring to this subject — one from the pen of Captain 

 J. Biddulph, which will be found in the ' Proceedings of the 

 Royal Geographical Society ' for August, 1874, at p. 425, the 

 other from that of Mr. J. Scully, at p. 123 of ' Stray Fea- 

 thers ' for 1876^. 



In conclusion I may mention that I possessed for several 

 years an adult living specimen of the Golden Eagle in which 

 the iris, instea<l of being of the usual rich hazel-brown, was 

 of a dull pale yellow, exhibiting an aberrant coloration re- 

 sembling that which sometimes occurs in the iris of Buteo 

 vulgaris. 



I now propose to consider three nearly related Eagles which 

 Mr. Dresser has distinguished in his ' Birds of Europe ' by the 

 English names of Imperial, White-shouldered, and Steppe- 

 Eagles J and I am glad that the circumstance of Mr. Dresser 

 having so recently published almost all that can be said in 

 addition to Mr. Sharpe's account of these three species, ren- 

 ders it needless for me to dwell upon them at so great a length 

 as might otherwise have been requisite. 



Mr. Sharpe applies to the Imperial Eagle the specific name 

 of '' heliaca ; " but I agree with Mr. Dresser in believing that 

 this species is entitled to the earlier appellation of " mogilnik" 

 * [See also Dr. Finsch's note, anted, p. 50. — Ebd.] 



Q 2 



