EXPERIENCES "WITH EAGLES. 197 



plumaged adult. The latter we could have killed half a 

 dozen times; but the male, realizing, it may be, the 

 interesting problem which centred itself on his person, 

 gave us no small trouble ere at last he fell to a long and 

 lucky shot on the wing. His skin now lies before us — 

 pale tawny chestnut in ground colour, sprinkled with 

 darker feathers all over, and with white slioiddcrs. 



A few days afterwards (March 4th), a second pair were 

 discovered breeding on a big stone-pine in a different 

 district. In this case the female w'as tawny, the male 

 black. We watched the pair, with the glass, at moderate 

 range, for half an hour, and Manuel de la Torre afterwards 

 told us they had passed over his head within twenty 

 yards, leaving no doubt as to their respective colours. 

 There was thus no necessity to shoot them. As it is we fear 

 we may be blamed, for to exterminate a species in order 

 to clear up some obscure fact in its biology is to commit a 

 crime under the guise of science ; but we have not been 

 guilty in this or any other instance of needless slaughter ; 

 and, in Spain, be it added, eagles are " vermin " upon 

 whose heads a price is set. The few shot by us 

 are now valuable and cherished specimens ; otherwise 

 they might, and probably would have, been uselessly 

 destroyed, the beautiful birds left to rot where they fell. 



In April we saw a third example in the hands of a 

 naturalist at Malaga — a tawny female (without sign of 

 white on shoulders), which we were told (and do not doubt) 

 was shot from her nest in that province the preceding 

 week. 



The veteran Manuel de la Torre, a classic name in 

 Spanish ornithology, and one of the keenest and most 

 observant men we ever met, who has spent the greater 

 part of his seventy years in the destruction of eagles, 

 foxes, wolves, and other animales daninos — noxious beasts 

 — laughed at our enthusiasm over this " discovery," say- 

 ing that he had known of the fact all his life, and had 

 shot " tawny " Imj)erials from their nests before we were 

 born ! He asserted that these eagles do not ever, neces- 

 sarily, attain the black state ; they may live 100 years and 



