Lettet's, Announcements, ^c. 351 



brown or black ends. The dark tail-feathers are seldom rayed 

 or barred, and when so, very slightly. In this respect the tail- 

 feathers of A. navia and A. fulvescens differ strongly, the latter 

 having the bars very conspicuous. The tail of A. navia is much 

 broader, and more square too, than that of A. fulvescens. I may 

 here remark that the tarsal feathers of the old A. navia become 

 more or less pure white. I have seen one fine old dark bird 

 with the tarsus quite white, and I have another partly changed. 

 The tarsus of the two-year old bird is clove-brown. 



Of the first (?) and most unusual plumage I send a rough 

 sketch and also a description I noted down of a bird shot a few 

 days ago. The peculiarity of the specimen is the extremely 

 light bufi" colour of the head and the whole lower plumage, and 

 the grey and light buff colour of the shoulders. The only 

 dark feathers are the large scapularies, primaries, secondaries, 

 and tail-feathers. 



Though my drawing is very rude, I have correctly given the 

 colour of the head and lower parts ; but the lower part of the 

 scapulars should be darker. The lesser wing-coverts are a mix- 

 ture of buff, pale brown, and positive white, so arranged that 

 the shoulders seem to be of a buff-gi-ey. The colouring is very 

 peculiar, and I am not sufficiently skilful to represent it on paper. 

 The ends of the upper tail-coverts are as in A. nmvia, pure 

 white. In character and frog-eatinff habits the bird appears to 

 resemble A. navia. If so, what plumage is this ? Is it the 

 nestling-plumage ? Of the two dozen specimens of A. navia I 

 have seen, two only have occurred in this plumage, four or five 

 in the old dark spotless plumage, and very many in the spotted 

 plumage so well known from Yarrell's figure. Mature birds 

 are generally much more scarce than those in immature plumage ; 

 but why should the youngest plumage of all be so rare ? Num- 

 bers o( A. ncevia were seen and not shot; but Mr. Hume, who 

 has had much more experience in Eagles than myself, has only 

 seen one buff bird, the one I shot last year in February ; and I 

 have, in addition to this, just obtained another, shot on the 11th 

 of March this year. The first bird is a male, the last a female. 

 In plumage they are extremely alike. I notice that the bill is 

 of a much paler blue than the old bird's, so also with the cere 



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