Notes upon some of the IiuUan and Eiiro2)ean Eagles. 3 £7' 



specimens themselves which I possess are very solid facts which 

 the best men in Europe cannot contend against. 



It is now admitted by Messrs. Gurney and Dresser, that the 

 adults of Aquila hastaia, and what they call the North German 

 or small race of the spotted eag-le, (the true Aquila nmvia of the 

 old authors,, in their opinion,) are not to be distinguished ; but 

 they contend that the immature birds are different. In opposi- 

 tion to this, I submit that the Danzic bird sent me as Aq. navia 

 by Mr. Dresser is a veritable Aq, hastata, and immature birds of 

 this species must occur in the same region. The spotted birds 

 which differ may not have been satisfactorily connected with 

 the adults to which they were said to belong. Did any one take 

 the immature one from the nest, and rear it ? The statement 

 that the immature plumage of the little Pomeranian spotted 

 eagle is different from that of Aq. hastata, I regard, at all 

 events for the present, as theoretical. 



I should not be in a position myself to say what the immature 

 plumage of Aq. vindhiana was, unless I had brought up the 

 young from the nest. How do Messrs. Gurney and Dresser 

 prove that the immature of the Pomeranian spotted eagle is 

 distinct from that of A. hastata ? 



They say the immature plumage of A. hastata has not occurred 

 in Europe, and is not known there, but against this I say, it is only 

 the other day that Aq. mogilnih, in the lineated stage was found 

 to occur in Europe, and it is a plentiful bird there ! Again 

 A. iifasciata has been bodily overlooked, so that I can quite 

 understand that neither Messrs. Gurney nor Dresser have 

 yet seen an immature European Aq. hastata. They will see 

 them, however, before .long, and the immature typical Aq. 

 bifasciata too, unless I am greatly mistaken. They have, I 

 believe, at last seen the lineated Aq. mogilnik to begin with ; at 

 all events thej^ must have heard of it by this time, and the 

 others wilh follow in due course. How long is it since it was 

 denied upon the best authority, that there was such a thing as 

 a lineated Imperial Eagle in Europe, and it was contended that 

 the Indian bird was quite distinct from the true imperialis or 

 mogilnik ? Now they are united, and a distinct Western bird 

 {^Aq. adalberti, Brehm) is separated. These birds were not seen, 

 hecaiise they were not properly looked after ; and after all Europe 

 with its numerous ornithologists and collectors, and with a 

 climate facilitating the operations of the naturalist to the 

 utmost, so widely different from the scorching Indian one, has 

 been but very lazily explored, and there is no knowing what 

 may turn up there in the future in the way of identiBcations. 



1 do not think that Aq. clanga, of Pallas, has any connection 



