Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Ornithology of Palestine. 351 



Aquila chrysaetus (L.). The Golden Eagle was very com- 

 mon all the winter in the maritime plains and about Mount 

 Carmelj as well as in the south of Judaea ; but though nowhere 

 altogether absent in spring, it became very much more scarce, 

 and probably retires to the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon to breed. 

 We saw several pairs during January in the neighbourhood of 

 the Dead Sea, but never took the nest in Palestine ; nor had we 

 any opportunity of observing its nidification. It did not occur 

 so frequently as the succeeding species when the season ad- 

 vanced. 



Aquila heliaca (Sav.). This truly imperial bird is more abun- 

 dant in Palestine than in any country which I have visited. It 

 may be said (in summer at least), in great measure, to replace the 

 Golden Eagle of Europe, There is a beauty and majesty in its 

 movements, and in its greater fearlessness of man when in search 

 of food, which at once attracts one -, while the very distinct white 

 scapulars and the light head show conspicuously on the wing. 

 On one occasion I observed an Imperial Eagle continue to hover 

 over a gazelle which we had wounded, but which, being in a 

 hostile and unknown country in Gilead, we were unable to follow, 

 and doubtless it succeeded in making a hearty meal of our 

 quarry. At another time, in the early morning, while riding 

 through the Valley of Dothan, one of these birds, with its white 

 shoulders beautifully distinct, passed slowly close overhead, and 

 escaped before we had time to take down our pieces. Unlike 

 the Golden Eagle, it was as common at one time of the year as 

 another, though we never took a nest. At Beyrout I had a skin 

 given me of an immature bird in that plumage (with two white 

 bands on the wings) in which it has been described as Aquila 

 bifasciata. This bird had been brought to one of the American 

 Missionaries on the Lebanon by two Druse boys, who begged 

 permission, after the skin had been taken off, to feast on the 

 jQesh, which they did with a hearty relish. 



Aquila n^evia (Gm.). Much more common in winter than 

 in summer on the plains. We observed it only two or three 

 times in the Lebanon in spring. Mr. Gurney has pronounced a 

 specimen I showed to him to belong to the large form described 



