1876.] RAPTORIAL BIRDS OF INDIA. 313 



and upper tail-coverts of the vast majority of them by the time they 

 arrive in this country get bleached to a dirty white, leaving only 

 traces of the salmon-colour above referred to. 



In the present example the underparts are of a uniform dark brown 

 colour ; i. e. there is no indication of the stone-coloured blotches I 

 have before referred tof ; but this, I think, is due to individual vari- 

 ation, and I attach no importance whatsoever to the absence of this 

 peculiarity in a solitary specimen. 



It will thus be seen that Dresser's larger figure (' Birds of Europe,' 

 part xxxiii.) represents a bird in nestling plumage, after the buff 

 bands have faded considerably. How long it remains in this bifas- 

 dated plumage can only be ascertained by keeping one in captivity ; 

 but it is as well to repeat! that the assumption of the fully adult 

 dress is attained by the gradual disappearance of the wing-bands 

 (these at first are buff or salmon-coloured, and then white) and the 

 markings on the under surface (when present), after which it presents 

 a uniform brown throughout, with the addition (in the course of 

 time) of a fulvous nuchal patch, which is the sign of a fully matured 

 bird. The growth, however, of this patch is far from regular, and 

 few specimens are procured having it fully developed ; at times it is 

 confined to the top of the head, at others to the nape of the neck in 

 a crescentic or hall-moon shape. 



27. Aquila mogilnik, G. Gmel. 



Having now seen the nestling of A. bifasciata and A. hastata, I 

 feel confident, for analogous reasons, that the Aden-killed A. mogil- 

 nik in the lineated stage § was also in nestling or fi»*st plumage. This 

 specimen was of a much richer tone throughout than the birds usually 

 procured in this country, the fact being that the sun had not as yet 

 affected the original tint of its plumage. 



*40. Pandion haliaetus, Linn. 



1 lost a wounded Osprey on the 24th November last at a jheel in 

 this district, which caused me not a little regret, the more so as I 

 toiled after the bird up to my knees in water, first for some four hours 

 in the morning, and again in the afternoon. It was very wild, keeping 

 to the middle of a large open piece of water, and invariably settling 

 on a decayed stump of a babool tree, where there was no approach 

 of any sort. The place swarmed with larger Eagles, of sorts which 

 never allowed the stranger to have a moment's rest, and were con- 

 tinually depriving it of its well-earned prey. 



Air. Cockburn, Curator of the Allahabad Museum, has latelv 

 given me a fine mature female which he shot in that district, where, 

 he says, it is far from uncommon. In the well-watered parts 

 of Northern Oudh and Eastern Bengal it is much more common ; 

 but the majority of the jheels in the Doab are too shallow as well as 

 too weedy to attract this purely fish-eating Eagle. 



; ( f. P. Z. S. 1875, p. 21. } Cf. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 622. 



S if. P.Z.S. 1875, p. 21. 



