22 SPOTTED EAGLE. 



manner, to do between the Eagles and the Yultures. In fact, 

 though called an Eagle, and classed with those birds, it would 

 seem to be possessed of more of the characteristics of the 

 Buzzards. 



The Spotted Eagle flies low in hawking after its prey. It 

 feeds on rabbits, rats, and other small animals and reptiles, 

 as also on birds, particularly on ducks, as well as on some of 

 the larger species of insects. 



It builds on high trees, and lays two whitish eggs, slightly 

 streaked with red. Like the Osprey, it seems to suffer smaller 

 birds to build without molestation, in the immediate vicinity 

 of its nest, or even in the outer parts of the nest itself. 



This species is about two thirds the size of the Golden 

 Eagle in linear dimensions. It measures about two feet three 

 and a half or four inches in length. In the adult state, the 

 general colour of the plumage is brown, varying in depth of 

 tint according to the age of the bird. The bill is dark bluish 

 horn-colour; cere, yellow. The head, both above and below, 

 of a light brown; neck, dark reddish brown, the feathers, as 

 in the Golden Eagle, being hackles; back, the same colour. 

 The breast is rather lighter than the back. The wings, which 

 when closed reach to the end of the tail, have the fourth 

 and fifth quill feathers nearly of an equal length, but the fifth 

 rather the longer, as it is also the longest in the wing; the 

 primaries are almost black all the feathers white at the base. 

 The tail coverts are bright brown; tail, dusky black, barred 

 with a paler colour, and the end of a reddish hue. The feet 

 are yellow; claws, black. 



The young bird in its first year has the bill of a dark bluish 

 horn-colour, darker towards the tip than at the base; cere, 

 yellow; iris, hazel; the head, neck, and back, dark chocolate 

 brown; breast, the same; the margins of the greater and lesser 

 coverts, as also the tertials, tipped in a well-defined elliptical 

 form with yellowish white or white. The tail is dark chocolate 

 brown. The legs are feathered down to the feet, and these 

 feathers are variegated with lighter shades of brown; toes, 

 yellow, reticulated for part of their length, but ending with 

 four large broad scales; claws, nearly black. In its second 

 year, the colour of the whole plumage becomes more uniformly 

 of a general dark reddish brown. 



