EAGLES. 



223 



shaft-lines. The booted eagle inhabits all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, 

 extending into Southern Africa and South-Eastern Europe, and also occurring in 

 Gilgit, India, and Ceylon. It is represented in Australia by the nearly allied. 

 inorphin>i<le*. In India the species under consideration frequents groves, gardens, 

 and cultivated lands; and in the neighbourhood of towns and villages inflicts 

 serious loss on the owners of pigeons and poultry. Jerdon says that this eagle 

 generally swoops down on its prey which includes small mammals while circling 

 in the air, but that it will occasionally pounce down from a bough. It breeds in 

 Spain and other parts of Southern Europe, as well as in India and Africa ; the nest 

 being apparently always situated in a tree. Writing of the nests observed by him 

 in Spain, Lord Lilford states that they always contained two eggs ; this seeming to 

 be invariably the number laid by this eagle. In Spain the booted eagle is one of 

 the most common Accipitrines, arriving late in April, and remaining till October. 

 " The nests," continues Lord Lilford, " of which we found several, were generally 

 placed on the lowest branches of a tall pine, at the junction of the main trunk, and 

 were built of sticks, but inside invariably contained fresh twigs with the green 

 leaves adhering to them. " The breeding-season in Spain lasts from April till June ; 

 and the oval eggs have greyish or dead white grounds, which may or may not be 

 blotched with pale yellowish or reddish brown. The booted eagle is remarkable for 

 its shrill piercing scream, which is stated both by Lord Lilford and Mr. Hume to 

 be unlike the cry of any other Accipitrine. In Gilgit, this eagle is found from 

 March till October ; and it breeds there at an elevation of five thousand feet. 



The characters by which the true eagles may be distinguished 

 from the hawk-eagles having been already indicated under the head- 

 ing of the latter, it will suffice here 

 to refer to some of the leading 

 features of the present group. The 

 true eagles are all birds of large size, 

 and, with the exception of Steller's 

 sea-eagle, include the largest repre- 

 sentatives of the whole family. In 

 all of them the beak is strong and 

 of moderate length, curving gradu- 

 ally from the cere, with a sharp 

 point, and nearly straight cutting 

 edges; while the nostrils may be 

 either oval and oblique or circular. 

 The wings are large and long, and 

 have the fourth quill rather the 

 longest. The feathered metatarsus 

 is of moderate length ; and its reticu- 

 lated scales extend far on to the toes, 

 which have only a few large scutes 



near the claws ; these features at once serving to distinguish the limb of one of 

 these birds from that of a sea-eagle. The claws are of moderate size and curvature. 

 They are mostly birds of plain and dark-coloured plumage, with the iris of the eye 



True Eagles. 



THE FEATHERED METATARSUS OF THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



