Structure and Plumage 337 
the two plumages is consequently most marked. In the second 
year the breast becomes lighter and large dark streaks appear. 
The iris also grows paler—a dull umber brown. The adult 
plumage is certainly not assumed until the third year but I have 
indisputable ocular proof that the birds sometimes pair and breed 
when still wearing the immature plumage, at any rate the females 
do so. 
As regards their structure, few Eagles, if indeed any, are so 
powerful for their size as is Bonelli’s. Their massive legs and feet 
and abnormally large claws are seemingly out of all proportion 
to the rest of their body. I have a foot of a female Bonelli 
which might easily be taken as belonging to a Golden Eagle, a 
bird nearly double the size and weight. 
When they fly off the nest they make a rapid dive, quickly 
followed by a sharp upward curve which makes it no easy matter 
to shoot them. We had practical proof of this more than once in 
the case of a female belonging to the nest of 1877, much to the 
perplexity of those concerned, both excellent shots. Eventually 
the murder was perpetrated and I have her now stuffed in my 
collection. She has a very white breast, finely streaked with 
brown. All the males which [| have watched enter or leave a 
nest have been similar in plumage, but not all the female birds, as 
already mentioned. 
I am happy to be able to record that I have the life of only one 
Bonelli's Eagle on my conscience and this in spite of the many 
nests I have visited and the innumerable opportunities when | 
havé had them within close range. 
The next year the bereaved male found another mate and they 
nested in a low cliff, not 30 ft. high, on a shelf of rock less than 
6 ft. from the summit, which it was possible to walk into. ‘This 
nest was in the same ravine as the previous year but on the opposite 
side of it, the picture on p. 334 of the crag used in 1877 being in fact 
22 
