518 AQUILA 



dark horn ; cere and feet yellow ; iris brown. Culmen 2'35, wing 20'2, 

 tail 1 1 *0, tarsus 4*45 inch. Female similar, but larger. The young bird differs 

 in being profusely spotted with greyish or brownish buff, the scapulars 

 and larger coverts having large ovate spots, the lesser coverts smaller drop- 

 shaped spots ; secondaries broadly tipped with greyish ; feathers on the 

 rump and upper tail-coverts with the terminal portion brownish buff ; 

 under parts deep brown, striped with tawny brown ; tarsal feathers dark 

 brown, marked with creamy white ; under tail-coverts creamy buff. 



Hob. Central and Southern Europe, straying occasionally to 

 Northern Europe and Great Britain ; Africa, south to Kordofan 

 and Abyssinia; Asia, east throughout India and Northern 

 Burma ; South Eastern Siberia as a rare straggler. 



In habits this is a heavy somewhat sluggish bird frequent- 

 ing open places as well as wooded tracts and damp marshy 

 localities. It feeds on frogs, reptiles, large insects, fish, &c., 

 and does not disdain carrion. Its note is a yelping cry jeb, jeb, 

 jeb. Its nest which is constructed of sticks and dry branches 

 intermixed with grass and leaves, is usually placed on a tree, 

 sometimes however on a high bush, and in April or May two 

 eggs are deposited which are white, somewhat sparingly marked 

 with violet grey shell-markings and dark red surface-spots, and 

 in size average about 2 '65 by 2*33. 



Aquila fulvescens Gray (Aq. boecki von Homeyer) is a pale 

 variety of the present species (cf. Rothschild, Bull. B.O. Club. x. 

 p. 51.) and not a distinct species. 



732. LESSER SPOTTED EAGLE. 

 AQUILA POMARINA. 



Aqulla po marina Brehm, Vog. Deutsclil. p. 27 (1831) ; Dresser, v. p. 491, 

 pi. 338 ; A. maculata, Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. p. 246 (1874, nee. 

 Gmel.) ; A. rufonuchalis ; Brooks, Stray Feathers, iv. p. 269 (1875). 



Kleiner Schreiadlcr, German ; Mindre Skrikorn, Swed ; Podorlik 

 Malaya, Russ. 



$ ad. (Pomefania). Differs from A, maculata in being smaller, the 

 plumage earth-brown, with the tips of the feathers somewhat paler, the 

 crown and nape warm creamy brown, the tail darker brown, the outer 

 leathers tipped with dark grey and with obsolete light bars ; tarsal feathers 

 dull brown and light brown intermixed. Culmen 1-8, wing 177, tail 9'5, 

 tarsus 3*8 inch. The young bird is brown, with a chocolate tinge and much 

 less spotted than A. maculata; crown and hind-neck dotted with small 

 ochreous rufescent spots, the nape with a large ochreous rufous patch ; 

 ;back and lesser wing-coverts dotted with small spots ; secondaries tipped 



