312 NOTES ON THE SPOTTED EAGLE, AQUILA N.EVIA. 



very great rarity,* so difficult to obtain that though I have 

 been trying for it for several years I have only succeeded in 

 getting one old rag of a skin. Is it possible that this scarce 

 little Eagle can be the bird which attracted the notice of all the 

 old writers ? Are we to believe that they knewf the two Spotted 

 Eagles and were able to discriminate them ? I think not, and 

 if so, which Eagle were the old authors most likely to come 

 across, but the common one which is generally distributed ? 

 Wherever the lesser one is found there will the other be also 

 found and in greater abundance. 



In a recent letter Mr. Gurney gives me particulars regard- 

 ing two Spotted Eagles shot in Cornwall. Lengths, 27 and 27±- 

 inches, wing of the former, 20 inches, and weight 41bs. 1 oz. 

 Now it is quite clear to me that neither of these birds were 

 Jquila pomari?ia, but were both the large bird or true ncevia. 

 I have weighed many examples of this species, and generally 

 found the female to weigh from 4 to 4^1bs. An average 

 A. hastata, which is the same size as Aquila pomarina, weighs 

 from 1\ to 2|lbs. If this large species extends even to 

 England, why should it not occur much more commonly in 

 Poland and Germany ? Mr. Sharpe says, " South-Eastern 

 Europe, very rarely extending into Poland and Germany." 

 This is vague, and I am afraid far from accurate. If there 

 are suitable marshes in Poland and Germany, it would not be 

 easy to keep Aquila ncevia out of these countries except by 

 exterminating the bird. J 



My impression is, that if I were to go and shoot in either of 

 these countries I should get ten of ncevia to one of pomarina. 



Indian ornithologists will be glad when the value of the 

 buff-nuchal patch of young A pomarina is determined ; for if 

 it be not proved a constant fact, we shall lose our Indian Aquila 

 hastata. 



I may here notice that in the list of synonyms of Aquila hastata, 

 Less., 1834, the last is Aquila ncevia, Brooks, S F,, L, p. 293 

 (1873). 



* It is not certain that it is really so rare. Mr. Brooks will remember when we 

 both thought hastata to be so rare as to be almost a myth, but as soon as we had 

 clearly discriminated it, we found it common enough, aud received it from fifty 

 localities from Abbotabad to Calcutta. Naumann speaks of having met with more 

 of the smaller than the larger species, and in another place he says, " that the larger 

 Eagle appears to occur in almost the same regions as the lesser one, may depend 

 chiefly on the variability of both species. This will hardly be cleared up until people 

 learn to discriminate the two species better. In some localities the larger, iu others 

 the lesser, is the rarest." Naumann clearly did not look upon the lesser Eagle as 

 rare. — Ed. 



t Some of the older writers certainly did recognize that there wore two species. 



X Naumann, however, whose surpassing practical knowledge is indisputable, says 

 that in Pornerania aud Holstcin the larger species is rare. — Ed. 



