Mr. R. B. Sharpens Catalogue of Accipitres. 231 



more colourless, by use and fading, in Abyssinian specimens 

 of the Eagle wbich Riippell called A. albicans than in ordi- 

 nary South-African examples of the typical A. rapax. 



The coloration of the Abyssinian race is thus described by 

 Von Heuglin, for a translation of whose remarks on this sub- 

 ject the English reader is indebted to the good offices of Dr. 

 Bree : — " Old birds from Abyssinia are almost uniformly of 

 a grey isabel-colour, which latter tint gradually changes to a 

 dull white ; other birds from Eastern Sennaar and Western 

 Abyssinia are generally, and especially underneath, of a greyish 

 fawn-colour ; on the breast, sides, shanks, and under tail- 

 coverts are solitary, often very broad, reddish or smoky 

 brown arrow-shaped spots, which sometimes run across the 

 whole feather " ■^. Mr, Jesse thus refers to a pair of these 

 Eagles shot by him in Abyssinia on 27th April, 1868 : — 



'' $ . Iris brown, cere yellow, bill almost black .... 



" S ' Ii'is yellowish grey, cere dirty yellow ; beak bluish grey 

 at base, black at tip .... 



"The pair above noted t were killed the same day, one on 

 the nest, the other as he swooped down to look for his com- 

 panion ; these two examples sufficiently illustrate the varia- 

 tions to which this Eagle is subject, the female bird being 

 almost entirely cream-coloured, and the male so brown as to 

 be verging on black ; the iris and beak are different in each ; 

 .... the remaining five specimens I got vary considerably, 

 none, however, being so dark or so light as the pair above 

 mentioned ^^ J. 



It seems to me to be convenient to retain the distinctive 

 appellation of albicans for the Abyssinian race of Eagles re- 

 ferred to in the above extracts, as the great majority of Abys- 

 sinian specimens exhibit a tone of colour strikingly different 

 from that of the ordinary typical A. rapax of South Africa. 

 The Abyssinian birds, when immature, present a general 



* Vide Bree's ' Birds of Europe,' 2nd edit. vol. i. p. 94. 



t This pair of Eagles are preserved in the collection of the Marquis of 

 Tweeddale. 



X Vide 'Transactions' of the Zoological Society of London, vol. vii. 

 p. 201. 



r2 



