3310 THE ZooLoGist—NoveEMBER, 1872. 
in length, the feathers white for the greater part of their length, but 
shaded, blotched and partially barred with grayish and reddish brown 
on the exterior webs, and on the inner towards the end of the feathers, 
which are of a grayish black for a space of about three inches, and the 
central feathers are nearly three inches wide; none of the ten are perfect 
(there are two missing); coverts long, and much like the quills, being of a 
reddish brown towards the ends. There is beneath the outer plumage 
a thick bed of soft pure white down, which, cropping out here and there, is 
very remarkable. Bewick’s “ ringtailed eagle” would be an exact picture of 
this bird if it had but a little more white on the under parts and a little 
less on the tail-feathers; the figure is perfect, and might be taken for a 
photograph of this bird had the tail been somewhat rounded, instead of 
even. Length thirty-eight inches; extent of wings eighty-eight inches, 
but at least two inches more should be allowed for the abrasion of the 
primary shafts. The stomach contained nothing but the claw of a partridge 
and a single feather. Weight over ten pounds. Though this eagle is 
supposed to have been a wild one, I have my doubts, and will state them ;— 
first, its tameness and unwariness, though fasting, in allowing three men 
with guns so near an approach before taking wing, and this, too, more 
than once (according to my informant, who had the particulars from 
Mr. Jolliffe), and when but slightly wounded allowing itself to be readily 
captured; secondly, nothing being found in the stomach but the claw and 
feather of a partridge, which may have belonged to a wounded or dead 
bird ; thirdly, the total loss of one of the toes, long since healed, looks as if 
the bird had been trapped; fourthly, the abraded primary shafts and 
ragged webs, and the imperfect and disordered state of the plumage,—not, 
I think, to be accounted for by the bird being in a state of moult,—besides 
* I am informed that none of the feathers were loose ; /ifthly, its light weight, 
though well nigh, if not quite, full grown. Though an immature bird, it is 
of full average size; in fact, larger, according to Mr. Morris, who gives 
thirty-six inches as the length of the adult female, and says that “ the iris 
is yellowish or pale orange-brown,” and that the “adult plumage is not 
assumed until the third or fourth year;” whereas Temminck says, “ C'est a 
la troisieme année que le jeune se revét du plumage de l’adulte,” and that 
“Jes femelles ont jusqu’a 3 pieds 6 pouces,” and the “ iris towjowrs brun.” 
Yarrell, who gives but a short, not to say indifferent, description of the 
golden eagle, omits the size of the female, but tells us that the adult male 
is under three feet, though Temminck (who I have great faith in) says it is 
three inches over three feet. Yarrell says that the irides are hazel. 
According to Macgillivray the female is thirty-seven inches long and eighty- 
seven inches in extent of wings—less by an inch or two than this bird, still 
in its transition or “ringtail” state of plumage, though not far from 
maturity, being probably in its third year. Willughby says that it breeds 
