AQUILA, 31 



vhite, forming a conspicuous patch, which, however, is confined to the 

 scapulars themselves ; the least wing coverts slightly mottled with brown, but 

 not with white near the carpal bend ; rest of wing coverts blackish brown, 

 uniform with interscapulary region ; quills blackish ; the primaries externally 

 shaded with ashy grey ; the secondaries browner, the innermost slightly tipped 

 with buffy white ; the lower surface of wing ashy brown ; the primaries mottled 

 with whitish at base of inner web. Tail ashy grey for a little more than the 

 basal two-thirds, shaded with silvery grey, and mottled with blackish brown, 

 forming indistinct and broken bars on sc-me of the feathers ; the terminal third 

 blackish brown with a narrow tip of fulvous ; head and neck light fulvous with 

 fawn-coloured bases to some of the feathers of the nape. Hind neck dark, 

 fawn brown with light buff tips and dark brown centres ; forehead and anterior 

 part of crown blackish, as well as the feathers over the eye ; sides of face and 

 of neck light fulvous like the crown, the feathers under the eyes inclining to 

 brown. Cheeks and entire under parts blackish ; the under tail coverts tawny 

 buff with dark brown shaft lines and whitish tips to the feathers ; under wing 

 -coverts and axillaries blackish, like the breast. Cere pale yellow. Bill bluish, 

 darker at tip. Feet pale yellow. Iris brownish yellow. 



Length. Male 31 inches; culmen 2-0"; wing 22'6; tail 1 1*3; tarsus 2-9. 

 (Sharpe, Cat- Ace.) 



Adult Female. Larger. Length 32-34 inches ; wing 237524 inches; tail 

 ii'S 5 tarsus 3'85. (Sharpe, Cat. Ace.) 



Hab. South, Eastern and Central Europe, and throughout India nearly. 

 'Occurs in Sind, the Punjab, Beloochistan, Afghanistan, Persia, Concan, and 

 Deccan; Nepal, Behar, Central and Southern India, and the Himalayas. 



Mr. Hume (Rough Notes) has collected all the information possible in 

 regard to the nidification of the Imperial Eagle. A few, he says, remain to 

 "breed in the upper Punjab and possibly in the Dhoon ; the rest breed in the 

 Himalayas. They lay (in the plains) in February, March, and possibly April, 

 building a large platform of sticks on or near the top of trees ; Peepul trees 

 generally, and also at times on Babool (Acacia) and other thorny trees. The 

 nests were from 2 to 2-5 feet in diameter and some 6 to 8 inches thick, lined 

 with a few green leaves, Mr. Blewitt took a nest near Hansie which was only 

 1 8 inches in diameter, without any lining and also from on top of an Acacia 

 tree. The eggs, Mr. Hume adds, vary much in size and shape 2*6 to 3 inches 

 in length and from 1-95 to 2-15 in breadth. The average of nine eggs is given 

 as 2*7 x 2 '09 inches. The figure in Bree measures 2*05 x 2'88, normally the eggs 

 seem a broad oval, but one or two are a good deal lengthened. The Kurrachee 

 Museum specimens are all broad ovals, white or greyish white, and one only 

 has the faint spots and streaks of pale brown with purplish brown blotches. 

 The number of eggs is generally two, and sometimes three. Mr.C. Farman(7fo>, 

 1869 ) an d Rough Notes) notes that it is a very shy bird and difficult to approach, 



