28 AQUILINE 



Two birds, whose heads, necks, and upper backs correspond, 

 differ entirely where the lower plumage, or perhaps tail-feathers, 

 are concerned, and vice versa. It is clear, therefore, that some 

 birds change first below, others above ; some earlier on the heads 

 and others on the tails ; thus rendering the determination of 

 the comparative priority of the various forms doubly difficult. 



The adult stage is well-known. The whole head, nape, cheeks, 

 ear-coverts, and sides of the neck, buff or orange-buff ; the back, 

 scapulars (except a few which are pure white), upper tail- 

 coverts, wing-coverts, primaries, and secondaries, chin, throat, 

 breast, abdomen, leg-feathers, sides, axillaries, and wing-lining, 

 deep blackish-brown ; the lesser wing-coverts margined, and the 

 upper tail-coverts tipped with fulvous-white ; the lower tail- 

 coverts white, and a good deal of white mottling about the 

 tertiaries, which are a pale-brown ; the tail grey, with a very 

 broad terminal black band, occupying fully two-fifths of its 

 visible surface, and above this, a number of more or less broad, 

 irregular mottled, and imperfect transverse dark brown bands, 

 which sometimes do, and sometimes do not, coincide exactly at 

 the shaft 



This is what I take to be the perfect adult. In less advanced 

 examples of this stage, the forehead, and more or less of the 

 crown, are blackish-brown ; the feathers of the chin and throat, 

 as well as the upper breast, are margined, more or less broadly, 

 with the same orange-buff as the head and nape. 



The axillaries and lower wing-coverts are more or less 

 mottled with rufous ; the lower tail-coverts with rufous-brown ; 

 and the ground color of the tail, above the black tip, is pale 

 yellowish-stone color rather than grey ; the upper tail-coverts 

 likewise are paler brown, and more broadly tipped with fulvous- 

 white. In this stage, too, the changes are not synchronous ; 

 birds most advanced about the head being often least so about 

 the tail ; those most advanced on the upper, least so on the 

 under surface, and vice versa. 



The amount of white on the scapulars, too, varies greatly ; some 

 have only a single feather, others nearly the whole scapulars 

 white, and I have some specimens, perfect adults, as regards 

 the plumage on every other point, but exihibiting no trace 

 whatsoever of white on the scapulars. Huww, " Rough Notes." 

 The Imperial Eagle is by no means common. It occurs 

 throughout the region, excepting perhaps Guzerat. 



Aquila clanga, Pall. 



28. Aquila ncevia, Gm. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 59 ; 

 Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 445 ; Deccan, Stray 

 Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 372; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of 

 Sind, p. 75; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, 

 p. 56 ; Hume's Scrap Book, p. 162. 



