100 INVALIDISM AND ITALY. 



opinion. I endeavoured, first, upon general principles, to 

 shew that the ring-tail was not the young: of the golden 

 eagle, in so far as the plumage of the tail was composed 

 of distinct portions or bands of black and white, a dis- 

 position of colour which is characteristic of maturity, or, 

 at least, which is never perceived in the young of any 

 species, in the adult individual of which (like the mature 

 golden eagle) there is on the same part a mingled com- 

 bination of comparatively obscure and less strongly con- 

 trasted colours. This argument I illustrate and enforce 

 at considerable length, though I shall not, at present, 

 trouble you with the details. I also argue against the one 

 being the young of the other from this circumstance 

 among others, that in Low's 'Fauna Orcadensis,' which 

 contains a list of the Orkney birds, the result of a twenty 

 years' residence in those islands, the ring-tailed eagle is 

 described as pretty frequent, but no mention is made of 

 the golden eagle as an inhabitant of the Orkney Isles. I 

 add, that the same circumstance occurs in the island of 

 Iona, where I have observed the ring-tailed ea<ile as an 

 adult breeding bird, occuj^ying the least accessible of the 

 eyries, but where I could neither observe nor collect any 

 information regarding the occurrence of the golden eagle. 

 My reason for troubling you with all this is, that I under- 

 stood you have had in your possession a live golden eagle 

 for some time, and that you procured him while young. 



