AQUILA. 339 



the drier districts, where this is by far the commonest Eagle ; 

 wanting on the Malabar coast and in Ceylon, and apparently in 

 Lower Bengal and Assam, but occurring in Upper Burma near 

 Thayet Myo, as there are specimens collected by Gates in the 

 British Museum. This species is not known to occur outside of 

 India and Upper Burma, but is represented by a nearly allied 

 form, A. albicans, in N.E. Africa. 



Habits, 6fc. This common Eagle is usually seen either seated on 

 a tree or beating over fields and woods. It is, like most Eagles, 

 not particular about its food, and will pounce on a small mammal, 

 bird, lizard, snake, or frog, or share the carcase of a dead bullock 

 with vultures ; but it also subsists to a great extent by robbing 

 smaller Accipitrine birds, such as kites and falcons, of their cap- 

 tures ; and Elliot long since called attention to its troublesome 

 habit of pursuing tame falcons, owing to its mistaking the jesses 

 for prey. It breeds from November to June, chiefly in January 

 in Northern India, rather earlier in the Central Provinces ; it 

 builds a nest of sticks, usually lined with green leaves, generally 

 on the top of a high tree, but often, where no high trees are at 

 hand, on a low babid {Acacia arabica), and lays usually two eggs, 

 greyish white, more or less spotted or blotched with yellowish 

 brown, and measuring about 2-63 by 2*1 1. 



1204. Aquila fulvescens. Brooks's Eagle. 



Aquila fulvescens, J. E. Gray in Hardiv. 111. Ind. Zool. ii, pi. 29 



(1833-34) ; Brooks, P. A. S. B. 1873, p. 173 ; id. J. A. S. B. xliii, 



pt. 2, p. 241 ; id. Ibis, 1874, p. 85 ; Anderson, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 22; 



Gurnet/, Ibis, 1877, p. 325 ; Hume, S. F. vii, p. 339 ; id. Cat. no. 28 



bis ; Reid, S. F. x, p. 450. 

 Xqwl?[,\\?e\\A,]\iY., ajmd Brooks, Ibis, 1868, p. 351 ; 1870, p. 290; 



Hume, Rough Notes, p. 108 ; nee Gjuel. 

 Aquila nsevioides, Tristram, P. Z. S. 1870, p. 4 ; id. Ibis, 1870, 



p. 290; Jerdon, Ibis, 1871, p. 245; Anderson, P. Z. S. 1871, 



p. 687. 



Coloration. Head, neck, and lower plumage varying from yel- 

 lowish buff to brownish rufous, the head-feathers, as a rule, and 

 occasionally those of the lower parts with dark shafts ; a narrow 

 blackish supercilium; upper back and wing-coverts brown, the 

 feathers broadly edged with buffy white ; lower back buff ; rump- 

 feathers brown, with broad buff margins ; upper tail-coverts huffy 

 white ; primary-quills and larger scapulars blackish brown, without 

 buff edges, first primaries white at extreme base; secondaries 

 dark brown, with whitish edges, especially on the outer webs ; 

 tail blackish brown, the feathers growing paler brown towards the 

 end and with a whitish tip ; in one specimen the tail shows traces 

 of barring. 



The pale buff plumage is evidently that of the young ; what 

 appears to be the adult has the head, neck, and lower parts 

 brownish rufous; the feathers of the abdomen with darker centres, 

 and the breast-feathers tipped darker ; the upper back dark brown; 



z2 



