284 Mr. W. T. Blanford on the Scientijic and 



Indian ornithologists. In his article on A. nipa/ensis, in the 

 ' Birds of Europe/ V. p. 511, Mr. Dresser writes, "I have 

 again most carefully examined Gmelin's figure and description, 

 and am more than ever satisfied that it refers to the immature 

 Imperial Eagle. ^^ Mr. Gurney, our best authority on Eagles, 

 wrote (Ibis, ]878, p. 99), " The more Eastern species {i. e. of 

 Imperial Eagle) should bear its oldest synonym (that under 

 which its immature plumage was figured and described by 

 J. G. Gmeliu *) of Aquila mogilnikr 



It is with much hesitation that I venture to differ from 

 ornithologists who have given so much careful attention to 

 the nomenclature of Eagles, There is, however, this to be 

 said : since Messrs. Gurney and Dresser wrote, Mr. Hume^s 

 magnificent series of Indian bird-skins and numerous other 

 specimens have been added to the National Collection, and 

 our opportunities of studying these birds in their various 

 plumages are much better than those that existed 15 or 20 

 years ago. There are now in the stores brought together 

 under Dr. Bowdler Sharpe's charge dozens of skins of young 

 Imperial Eagles, always to be recognized and distinguished 

 from the young of every other Palaearctic Eagle by the broad 

 pale median stripes on the feathers, of the lower parts 

 especially. S. G. Gmelin^s figure of Falco mogilnik is un- 

 coloured ; but this is of little importance, as the markings of 

 a young Imperial Eagle could have been equally well shown in 

 black and white. Not only, however, are there no traces of 

 any pale stripes in the figure, but, on the contrary, there are 

 distinct indications of dark shafts to the feathers of the neck, 

 breast, and wing-coverts. Now this is, so far as I am aware, 

 a character entirely foreign to both the Imperial Eagle (^A. 

 heliaca, v. imperialis) and the Steppe Eagle {A. bifasciata, v. 

 nipalensis) . But for these dark shafts the figure might have 

 been referred to the Steppe Eagle, as Avas done by Dr. Sharpe, 

 for the double band on the wing, produced by the pale tips 

 of the greater coverts and secondaries (whence the name 

 bifasciata), is distinctly shown. 



Gmelin's measurements are numerous, but for the most 



* A slip or mispriut for S. G. Gmelin. 



