38 MR. HOWARD SAUNDERS ON THE GENUS AQ.UILA. [Jail. 17, 



Eagles, I wish to state that they have been examined by Mr. J. H. 

 Gurney, Canon Tristram, Dr. Jerdon, and Mr. H. E. Dresser, and 

 that their views on the subject coincide with my own, also that I 

 have brought with me no specimens which do not immediately bear 

 on the question. In addition to those lent by some of these gen- 

 tlemen, I am indebted to Lord Lilford for the most important links 

 in the chain of evidence which I have to bring forward. 



"Although few Eagles exhibit more marked characters than the 

 adult Aquila imperialis (of Cuvier, Gould, and Schlegel, = A. mo- 

 gilnik of Gmelin and Latham), yet a great amount of confusion exists 

 respecting it and some of its congeners in immature plumage. 



" It will perhaps be best to begin by showing the different stages 

 of the bird as observed in Europe. 



" Thoroughly identified birds taken from the nest near Seville early 

 in June 1 869, by Lord Lilford, and still living in his aviary, were, 

 when I saw them in a tawny plumage, certainly somewhat darker 

 than Nos. 1 and 2, but still so light that several good ornithologists 

 at the time pronounced them to be A. ncevioides. Due allowance 

 must be made for the burning sun of Spain on those before me ; the 

 result of which is clearly shown in No. 2, which is a bird hatched 

 the same year as No. J, but killed in February 18/0 instead of 

 October 1869. 



" No. 3 is a still older bird. 



" No. 4 shows the connecting-link of the tawny bird passing into 

 the dark stage ; the centre barred feather in the tail coming out 

 above the uniform old feathers. 



" No. 5. Leads up to 



"No. 6. Adult female shot from her eggs. 



" No. 7- I take to be a somewhat older male. 



" So far as regards Spanish specimens, which as a rule exhibit a 

 good deal of white on the carpal joints, and rather less on the scapu- 

 lars than birds from the east of Europe and Asia Minor ; this, how- 

 ever, varies not only with age, but with the time of year. I once 

 possessed a Spanish Imperial Eagle with a great deal of white on 

 one scapula and hardly any on the other. All the eastern specimens 

 are adults ; but Mr. Cullen, of Kustendje, writes word that all young 

 Imperials there are tawny, and never striated. 



" True A. imperialis at no time exhibits a striated plumage with 

 white bars on the wings as in the Indian specimens now before us ; 

 yet these birds have been set down by many Indian naturalists as A. 

 imperialis, and similar specimens in the British Museum from Nepaul 

 are labelled Aquila mogilnik — the latter a hideous name ; but the 

 European bird has a prior claim to both. Mr. Allan Hume, in his 

 ' Rough Notes of a Naturalist,' describes the stages we have here, 

 but unfortunately omits the fourth, or adult stage, which I have not 

 been able to obtain from India. I do not mean to say that true 

 A. imperialis may not occur in India ; nor do I say that this bird, when 

 adult, may not have white scapulars ; but I do contend that this bird is 

 not true A. imperialis, but the Aquila bifaseiata, as figured in Gray 

 and Hardwicke's ' 111. Ind. Zool.' vol. i. pi. 1 7. At pi. 28, vol. ii., the 



