174 W. E. Brooks — On Aquila ncevioides. [Nov. 



fine rich warm colours will at any time separate it from the dull-coloured 

 Indian Wokhab, A. vindliiana. 



A. vindliiana has a light and a dark plumage ; but the light one is 

 merely a pale whity-brown ; and this pale plumage instead of being 

 characteristic of immaturity is on the contrary the plumage of the adult 

 bird, as far at least as my observations go. I have repeatedly shot these old 

 whity-brown birds from the nest. Some examples fade more than others, 

 and I believe this pale plumage to be more the result of the colour not being 

 fast than the mark of any particular age. I have in one and the same 

 species, viz., in Aquila ncevia, examples almost black, and others pale sandy 

 brown ; so widely different, in fact, are examples of the two extremes of 

 coloration that any one not acquainted with the characters of the species 

 would be much perplexed. 



I should observe that A. fulvescens is only a cold weather visitant to 

 the plains of India, while A. vindliiana and A. navioides are non-migratory 

 species. 



I append a description of the specimen of A. ncevioides, as it may 

 prove useful. 



Aquila ncevioides, Cuvier. 

 Whole body plumage, from head to tarsus, a rich light reddish brown or 

 tawny ; on the breast and sides are some feathers with part of one web 

 patched with purple brown ; wing coverts, both lesser and greater, a mixture 

 of very pale and dark brown, varied with tawny, the pale colour predomina- 

 ting and occupying the margins of the feathers, scapulars and inter-scapu- 

 laries, rich purple brown, with tawny terminal stripes to each feather ; giving 

 the bird a very striped appearance about the shoulders and mantle ; primaries 

 blackish, but paler and barred on their inner webs towards the bases ; 

 secondaries lighter and pale-tipped, being very conspicuously barred on both 

 webs ; tertials still paler, and well-barred on both webs ; lining of wing 

 lio-ht reddish brown ; axillaries the same ; lining-feathers under tertials 

 nearly pure white ; tail hoary brown, barred in the same manner as that of 

 A. vindliiana. There is no conspicuous pale tip. The eyebrow is very 

 distinct and black, much blacker and better marked than in either of the 

 other eagles referred to in this paper. The tibial and tarsal plumes are 

 lono- and fine, and of as bright a red or tawny, as any other part of the 

 body ; the lower tail coverts are also of the same bright tawny red. One 

 peculiar characteristic of this eagle is the strong purple gloss on the brown 

 of the scapulars and upper wing coverts. The nostril is a long vertical one 

 as in A. mogilnik and A. vindliiana, and also similar to that of A. bifas- 

 ciata. 



This is one, and the well known stage of this eagle's plumage, but it 



