Comparison with Golden Eagle 197 
powerful build and somewhat smaller and, save in the case of very 
young birds, is easily recognizable by its white shoulders, whence 
the name. 
When flying at a distance or high overhead it requires a 
quick eye to identify it and, personally, I am never satisfied 
when watching a soaring bird until I see it turn so as to show 
its back and upper wing-coverts, when the white shoulders, if 
present, at once show the species. 
Broadly speaking, in southern Spain the Golden Eagle restricts 
itself to the higher sierras, where it seeks for its quarry on the 
open hillsides where trees are few and scattered, whereas the 
White-shouldered Eagle frequents the low-lying ground and is 
usually seen circling over the plains and marshes or beating 
along the low scrub-covered hills adjacent to them. But there 
is no hard and fast rule in the matter and I have from time to 
time found nests of the White-shouldered Eagle in secluded wooded 
valleys at a greater altitude than those of the Golden Eagle in 
cliffs in the same district. 
Despite the resemblance of the two species when on the wing 
the Golden Eagle is vastly more powerful, especially in the legs, 
feet and talons. Thus an adult female’s hind-toe claw measured 
along the curve 22 in. whereas a White-shouldered Eagle’s was 
only 2 in. Again the claw of the inner toe of the Golden Eagle 
was 22 in, whilst in that of the White-shouldered it was only 1} in. 
This bird undergoes somewhat perplexing changes in_ its 
plumage. During the first year or two it is of a uniform reddish 
tawny colour, then follows an intermediate stage when the tawny 
is spotted with black and lastly, the adult plumage of a rich 
dark brown, so dark, indeed, as to appear almost black when on 
the wing. For a long time these immature tawny birds were 
supposed to be specimens of the Tawny Eagle (Agucla rapax), 
a smaller species whose habitat is Africa and it was Colonel Irby 
