374 On the Small Spotted Eagle of Northern Germany. 



however, to a plate in Frisch's ' Vogel Deutschlands ' as giving- 

 an accurate representation of his " Aigle tachete," in the fol- 

 lowing words : — '•^Buteo. Frisch. hujus icon accuratatab. 71." 

 I possess a copy of Frisch's work ; and on reference to the 

 plate I found that the bird there represented is any thing but 

 the Spotted Eagle, and might, I think, except for the partially 

 feathered tarsi, possibly be meant to represent the Golden 

 Eagle, though it does not agree with any stage of plumage 

 of that bird which I have seen. It represents a large blackish 

 brown eagle, regularly though indistinctly marked (so far 

 as can be ascertained), by the centres of the feathers being 

 darker than the outer portions ; and the feathering on the 

 tarsus only extends down to within about one third of the 

 base of the claws, this latter portion being bare. Frisch, 

 in his letterpress, speaks of it as the Stein-Adler or Ganse- 

 Aar (the former being the German appellation for the Golden 

 Eagle), and says that it is somewhat smaller than the Sea- 

 Eagle. He fm-ther states that it has the tarsi only partly 

 feathered, and is blackish brown in colour, like his Aqin'la 

 melanaetus^ which is evidently the young of the Sea-Eagle. 

 He speaks of having kept one for some time in captivity ; 

 and, so far as I can judge, the bird he had was a young 

 Golden Eagle, more especially as he says that it inhabits 

 rocky places and high mountains. He further writes that he 

 thinks it may be a buzzard {"■ ich halte nicht ohne Grund dafiir, 

 es sey dieses der rechte Busaar oder Bushard "). The above, 

 I think, clearly shows that the bird figured by Frisch, to 

 •which Brisson refers as being an accurate representation of 

 his "Aigle tachete," cannot possibly be the Spotted Eagle. 



To return to Brisson, I may point out several reasons why 

 his description cannot possibly refer to the small Spotted 

 Eagle. He gives its total length as being 2 feet 7 inches and 

 6 lines, or, in our English measure, 33" 7 inches, which utterly 

 precludes its being this species, as an old and large female 

 only measures in the skin 25 inches in length. He further 

 speaks of the throat being dirty white, the underparts of the 

 wings spotted, the underparts of the body generally dull fer- 

 ruginous, the legs covered with dull ferruginous feathers and 

 spotted with white, and the tail-feathers white at the base 

 and the end, and otherwise dark ferruginous marked with large 

 transverse brown spots, none of which characters agrees with 

 young spotted specimens of this bird which I possess. I 

 must confess that I am utterly unable to discover what species 

 it is to which Brisson refers, but am quite convinced that it 

 is not the small Spotted Eagle, which I hold must bear the 

 name of Aquila viacuJata (Gm.), ex Lath. 



