GOLDEX EAGLE. 105 



or species. The northern form, A. chrysaetus, is said always to have some 

 rufous colour on the breast, and in the adult bird has the basal half of 

 every feather, including the quills and tail-feathers, mottled or marbled 

 with brown, which gradually disappears, leaving the terminal half uniform 

 brown. The southern form, A.fulvus (which I take to be the young), is 

 said never to have any rufous colour on the breast, and the basal half of 

 the small feathers of the body are said to remain white throughout life ; 

 but the white basal half of the quills and tail-feathers in the adult become 

 mottled, similarly to that of its near ally, but more defined. I am, how- 

 ever, of the opinion that this so-called adult A.fulvus is only an interme- 

 diate stage between young and adult of A. chrysaetus, in which the quills 

 and tail are a stage in advance of the smaller feathers of the body, which 

 have not yet been moulted. Severtzow obtained examples in Turkestan 

 exactly the reverse of this, and called them A. intermedia, apparently birds 

 which had moulted the small feathers into the adult plumage, but still 

 retained the immature quills and tail-feathers. At all ages the terminal 

 half of a newly -moulted feather is a rich chocolate-brown, which gradually 

 fades into a pale greyish brown, and the crown and nape are more or less 

 rusty, approaching gold-colour in newly-moulted old birds. Irides rich 

 hazel-brown ; cere and feet yellow ; bill and claws dark horn-colour. The 

 female resembles the male, but is slightly larger. Accidental varieties, 

 with one or two white feathers in the scapulars, occasionally occur: 

 Messrs. Jaubert and Barthelemy-Lapommeraye record an example from 

 the south of France ; Loche met with several in Algeria ; and Dixon saw 

 one in Scotland. This peculiarity is permanently developed in the adult 

 Eastern Imperial Eagle, and is said frequently to occur in the Booted 

 Eagle. In von Homeyer's magnificent collection of Eagles I observed 

 examples of both young and adult Lesser Spotted Eagles with one or two 

 white feathers in the scapulars. The Golden Eagles figured by Dresser 

 are so hopelessly bad that it is impossible to believe that they were drawn 

 by Wolf, the statement on the plate to that effect being no doubt a mis- 

 print. At no stage of plumage has the Golden Eagle a regularly barred 

 tail, as there represented ; nor have I ever heard of any local race supposed 

 to possess one. A circumpolar bird like the Golden Eagle is sure to pre- 

 sent some local variations in colour ; but none of these have been satisfac- 

 torily determined. The British and Scandinavian birds are more rufous 

 (less grey) than those from Central Europe, and American birds are still 

 more so ; but how far they may be subspecifically separable has not yet 

 been ascertained. 



