178 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



years. Before I commenced collecting, a young example of the 

 Lesser Spotted Eagle, almost as gaily coloured as a young Gannet 

 (Sula alba), was shot here, while about twenty years ago a similar 

 bird was found dead at the foot of the cliffs, having been washed 

 up by the sea. The same gunner who had shot the Lesser Spotted 

 Eagle just referred to, also shot a Golden Eagle on the 18th of 

 November 1867. Further, a perfectly white Eagle, of equally large 

 size, was also observed here, but unfortunately not shot, although one 

 of the best gunners of the island, Jan Aeuckens, had already levelled 

 his gun at it a few paces off, and was in fact in the very act of pulling 

 the trigger. The plumage of this bird was throughout snow white, 

 like that of a swan ; it had already been shot at during the morn- 

 ing, but at too great a distance. In the afternoon it was seen 

 sitting on one of the sandhills, and Aeuckens landed in a small boat 

 unnoticed by the bird ; he succeeded in climbing up the sandhill 

 without being heard. Having reached the top, he was separated 

 from the bird by a distance no greater than ten or twelve feet, the 

 breadth of the summit. The eagle had his back turned towards 

 him, the head somewhat depressed, the pointed feathers of the 

 neck strongly erected ; he looked, as Aeuckens expressed it, ' very 

 grumpy/ a grain of shot had hit the back of his head above the 

 ear, and blood was trickling down from his white feathers. Aeuckens 

 silently raised his gun and took aim ; but at the moment of pulling 

 the trigger the thought struck him that at such close quarters the 

 shot would mutilate and ruin the bird ; he was at a loss what to do. 

 As ill luck would have it, he slid quietly down the hill again in 

 order to consult his father, who was waiting down below ; their 

 whispering scared the eagle ; a shot sent after him from too great 

 a distance failed to hit the bird, which was never seen again. I 

 suspect that this was the white variety of the Golden Eagle which 

 is said to occur pretty frequently in Northern Asia. The iris of 

 this example was of a rusty orange. 



The example of the Golden Eagle shot here is a rather young 

 male, perhaps a little more than two years old. The pointed 

 feathers of the head and hinder part of the neck are of an intense 

 orange-brown colour (orange-rostfarbig), the tips only being of 

 a somewhat more faded buff colour (rost-gelb). The tail has 

 irregular coarse brownish black spots on a ground of dark grey, 

 with very broad black terminal bars, exactly as figured on Nau- 

 mann's Fig. 1, plate 339. The feathers have no white towards 

 their roots. The under side of the bird is dark brown, the feathers 

 of the legs are of similar colour, the feathers of the upper breast 

 have a buff- coloured (rost-gelb) border. The Golden Eagle nests 

 in the mountains of Europe, Asia, and North America, excepting 



