AQUILA RAPAX ALBICANS 105 



mammals, birds and carrion, in preference to larger animals. It is, 

 however, voracious, and will attack other birds of prey smaller than 

 itself, and rob them of their quarry. The species appears to nest 

 principally in high trees, though at times it is said to resort to cliffs 

 for that purpose. Its eyrie is a large one, and is formed of dry twigs 

 and branches, with a little grass. 



According to Loche it lays two eggs of a greyish-white colour 

 with faint reddish or lilac shell-marks, and darker rufous and brown 

 surface-spots, the average measurements of the eggs being 70 X 

 60 mm. Its breeding season is rather later than that of most Eagles. 



The Tawny Eagle found in Tunisia appears to be referable to the 

 pale form, which has been separated subspecifically from A. rapax 

 (Temm.), under the name of A. rapax albicans (Riipp) (Neue 

 Wirbelth. p. 34. pi. 13) ; the type comes from Abyssinia, and is in 

 the Senckenberg Museum at Frankfort. Levaillant junior's Falco 

 belisarius, of which a plate is given in Loche's work, is also no doubt 

 referable to this subspecies. 



Whether this pale form has been rightly separated, is open to 

 question, but the general opinion, including that of so good an 

 authority on the subject as Mr. J. H. Gurney, appears to be in favour 

 of its being so, and of the form being considered as a good local race 

 or subspecies. 



At the same time the fact quoted by Mr. Gurney in his excellent 

 notes on A . rapax and its allies {Ibis, 1877, pp. 224-236) of a nesting 

 pair of this Eagle having been obtained by Mr. Jesse in Abyssinia, 

 in which the two sexes differed totally from each other in the colour 

 of their plumage, one being dark and the other light, seems to be a 

 strong argument against separation, and seems to indicate that great 

 variation exists in the coloration of this species. The pair of Eagles 

 alluded to were shot by Mr. Jesse himself in Abyssinia on April 27th, 

 1868, and were thus referred to by him (Trans. Zoo. Soc. Lou. vii, 

 p. 201) :— 



" Female. Iris brown ; cere yellow ; bill almost black. 



" Male. Iris yellowish-grey ; cere dirty-yellow ; beak bluish-grey 

 at base ; black at tip. 



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

 the other as he swooped down to look for his companion ; these two 

 examples sufficiently illustrate the variation to which this Eagle is 

 subject, the female bird being almost entirely cream-coloured, and 



