ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTES AND CORRECTIONS. 271 
this species, which in my opinion is wrong for the following 
reasons :— 
1. Latham’s description (on which Gmelin’s is founded) is 
very accurate, notipg even the small spots on the tibia; it 
is clear from the amount of spots to which he refers, and 
from the striated lower parts, that the bird was in first plu- 
mage; and taking the minuteness of the description into 
account, itis not likely that he would omit all notice of the one 
large spot the bird possesses, viz. that on the nape of the neck. 
2. He speaks of the wing spots as “ giving the wing a most 
beautiful appearance.”” The wing spots of the lesser bird are 
not very conspicuous, and at the distance of a few yards it 
would hardly shew its spots at all; but take a young example 
of the larger bird, and its big shower of large oval white spots 
at once command attention, for they really present “a most 
beautiful appearance.” 
3. Latham says, the inner secondaries are white at their 
ends “for more than an inch, which is decidedly not the case 
with Aguila rufonuchalis, which has these white tips consider- 
ably shorter,” most examples of the larger bird, however, fully 
come up to the requirement. 
4, he back is said to be spotted with buff, and speaking 
of the large oval white wing spots, he says :— The feathers on 
the middle of the back are likewise spotted, but of a pale buff 
color.” The larger bird is noted for large oval buff spots on 
the back, which are often so numerous and large, that they 
coalesce. Let me here remark that I cannot say at what stage 
these large oval spots are exchanged for smaller triangular 
ones ; perhaps after the first moult. 
5. In his later description of the bird (1821), in which he 
adopts Gmelin’s Latin term, Latham gives further particulars 
and says, the bird “is found everywhere in Russia and Siberia, 
and even in Kamtschatcka,” that “it has a plaintive cry, hence 
called Planga and Clanga.” Latham’s synonomy also connects 
his bird with the larger and well-known Spotted Eagle. 
In the face of the above evidence it is impossible to correct- 
ly apply Latham’s term to the small German Eagle, which 
neither answers to the description, nor to the geographical dis- 
tribution indicated. Falco maculatus, Gmelin, is therefore 
a term clearly applicable only to the larger and well-known bird. 
Aquila neevioides, Cuv. 
1 have seen a third South African example in the collection 
of Canon Tristram, and it corresponds very closely with the 
first one that I described (Prog. A. 8. B. 1873, pp. 173, 174). 
I have seen two or three of the dark Abyssinian species 
usually referred t6 A. nevioides, but 1 consider them quite 
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