FROM SPAIN. 493 



shoulder-patch, but still one and the same bird as the Imperial 

 Eagle of Slavonia or Southern Russia. It is a finely-marked 

 colour variety, and not even a Spanish or South-west Euro- 

 pean form of the bird; for these regions contain Imperial 

 Eagles which are absolutely identical in colour with those of 

 our own country, and, according to my own observations, the 

 difference between the two is not so great as between the 

 true " Stein " Eagle and the form known as the Golden 

 Eagle. 



I must now proceed to speak of the light-yellow eagle, 

 which is considered to be an immature bird. In Spain I saw 

 only these light-coloured specimens, and none in the transition 

 stage ; all were equally pale, and in Africa it was the same. 

 If, therefore, it is an immature state, it is strange that I never 

 met with an adult individual, but invariably with young birds, 

 which were all exactly alike in both countries. Again, allow- 

 ing it to be the immature plumage, these individuals must, as 

 they all had the same shade of feathering, have been born in 

 the same year, and this would undoubtedly have been a most 

 remarkable coincidence. 



If, in addition to the eagles already known in Spain, 

 another species has just been discovered, or still remains to be 

 discovered, it is, or will be, not a dark but a very pale bird. 

 It is possible that an Aquila adalberti, or whatever it may be 

 called for names are of no consequence does exist in Spain; 

 but it will eventually prove to be the light-brown eagle, which 

 up to the present time has been considered immature, instead 

 of the dark bird which has hitherto borne the above name. 

 There may, however, still be a new undescribed African species 

 whose range extends into the middle of Spain, for that 

 country already agrees in many points with the neighbouring 

 continent as regards all the divisions of the animal-world ; 

 but, so long as this is still undetermined, I shall hold the 



