220 Mr. J. H. Gumey's Notes on 



been made just previously. I still have this fine pair of 

 Eagles in excellent health, and have at various intervals made 

 memoranda respecting their changes of plumage, from which 

 I select the following : — 



On their first arrival I made a note to this eflFect : — " They 

 are in the plumage of the young bird figured in Mr. Dresser's 

 'Birds of Europe' on the same plate as the immature A. mo- 

 gilnik, except that a few dark feathers are appearing on their 

 foreheads, and also on one thigh of the female ; a few small 

 pure white marks are also visible on the female about the 

 carpal joint." 



On the 25th May, 1874, I noted that " the pair of Eagles 

 have become dark on the crown of the head, also on the pri- 

 maries and secondaries, as well as on the centres of the feathers 

 forming the wing-coverts, the edges of these feathers being yel- 

 lowish white" *. On 13th June, 1874, "the female shows a con- 

 siderable amount of white feathers about the carpal joint, and 

 some dark ones on the thighs and on the under surface of 

 the wings ; the male remains much as on 25th May." On 

 6th August, 1874, " the male begins to show white at the 

 carpal joint." On 24th November, 1874, " the female has now 

 almost one third of her plumage consisting of the new dark 

 brown feathers, and the male nearly as large a proportion ; 

 the white about the carpal joint is much the same in the 

 female as on the 13th June, and in the male as on the 6th 

 August." On the 5th February, 1875, " the male has now 

 almost as much white about the carpal joint as the female, no 

 other change noticeable in either bird since 24th November." 



On the 11th June, 1875, I observed in both the Eagles a 

 considerable, but irregularly distributed, increase of new dark 

 plumage, and also some increase of the white adjacent to tlie 

 carpal joint ; and the gamekeeper who has the charge of them, 

 and who is a very intelligent observer, had noticed that for a 

 fortnight previous to this date, they had been moulting fast, 

 this being, with the exception of a few feathers occasionally 

 dropped, the first appearance of a regular moult since the 



* This state corresponded with that to which I have previously aUuded 

 as the "second stage." 



