26 AQUILINE. 



Irides clear orange-brown ; cere and feet yellow. 



Adult rich dark umber-brown, glossed with purple on the back 

 and wings ; the feathers of the hind-head and nape lanceolate, pale 

 orange-brown, having a golden appearance in the sunshine ; 

 shoulders, thigh-coverts in front, and leg-coverts, with a tinge of 

 the same ; quills blackish-brown, white towards the base on the 

 inner webs, and clouded with greyish-black ; tail nearly square, 

 the centre feathers somewhat elongated and narrowed, greyish- 

 brown, with numerous dark markings and cloudings, or dusky- 

 brown with numerous grey mottlings on the inner web, especially 

 towards the base, almost white on the base in young birds. 



The Golden Eagle is very rare, and only occurs within our 

 limits, on the hills that separate Sind from Khelat. 



Aquila mogilnik, S. S. Gm. 



27. A. imperialis, Bechst. ; Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 

 57 (in part) ; Butler, Deccan ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 372 ; 

 Aquila heliaca, Sav. ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 

 74 ; Hume's Scrap Book, p. 142. 



THE IMPERIAL EAGLE. 



<?. Length, 28*5 to 30'5 ; expanse, 69 to 76 ; wing, 2075 to 23 ; 

 tail, 10*5 to 12-5 ; tarsus, 3'38 to 4 ; bill from gape, 213 to 2'63. 



?. Length, 30 to 32'63 ; expanse, 70 to 85 ; wing, 23 to 24'5 ; 

 tail, 12 to 14 ; tarsus, 375 to 4'06 ; bill from gape, 275 to 313. 



Bill pale bluish-grey, bluish- horny at tip ; cere, gape and base 

 of lower mandible deep yellow, tinged green near nostril ; legs 

 and feet dingy-yellow ; claws black. 



This bird has two well marked stages of plumage : 



1st. The general character of this stage is lineated. The 

 under parts with broader or narrower pale centres to the feathers, 

 and the upper parts with pale central stripes. What I take to 

 be the earliest form of this stage has the head and nape brown, 

 the feathers tipped and margined with pale yellowish-brown ; 

 the upper back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coveits darker brown, 

 most of them showing faint traces of paler centres and tips, and 

 some faintly margined slightly paler. 



The lower back is buffy, a patch on the rump being mottled 

 with brown, the upper tail-coverts being fulvous-white ; the 

 tail-feathers pale wood-brown, much abraded with dirty fulvous 

 tips, and showing towards the bases traces of a mottled, paler, 

 and darker barring. 



The primary quills are dark-brown, almost black ; the 

 secondaries and tertiaries paler and dingier brown, with a mere 

 trace of a fulvous- white tipping, but the tertiaries are a good 

 deal mottled with fulvous-white ; the median and greater wing- 

 coverts are, here and there, tipped with fulvous- white, but many 

 are not so ; the chin, throat, sides of the neck, breast, and 

 abdomen are pale buffy-brown ; the feathers margined with 

 darker-brown, which latter, however, is very narrow, and almost 



