IMPERIAL EAGLE. 69 
comes the double banded one A. bifasciata, then the plain brown stage 
with light head, and lastly the adult bird." Thus fully agreeing with 
the stages described by Mr. Hume. Mr. Anderson has also made 
public an important means of diagnosing the Imperial from the Spotted 
race of Eagles, namely, that in the former the "nostril is always 
elongated and vertical, wider at the base than at the tip; whereas in 
the latter they are a very broad ellipse, nearly circular. / am indebted 
to Mr. Brooks for having pointed this out to me." Hitherto it will be 
remarked we have no indication that Aquila bifasciata is anything 
but a plumage stage of the true Imperialis, and Anderson's comparison 
with my figure shows that this is the bird known in Europe as A. 
imperialis. 
Now comes one of the most startling discoveries in this interesting 
aquiline investigation. Mr. W. E. Brooks, C.E., of Assensole, one of 
the most enthusiastic ornithologists in India, published a paper in part 
2 of the forty-second volume of the "Journal of the Asiatic Society 
of Bengal, 1873," to prove that the bird known in this country as 
A. clanga, Pallas, and more recently as Aquila orientalis, Cabanis, is 
nothing more nor less than the Aquila bifasciata of Mr. Hume's and 
Mr. Anderson's papers above quoted. This paper is so interesting, 
and will be of so much use in the future discussion of the question, 
that I shall print it entire when I come to treat of Aquila bifasciata. 
The only answer which this paper has hitherto received (Oct. 1878,) 
is in a communication read before the Zoological Society, in which 
Mr. Dresser argues that we have not yet sufficient information to come 
to the conclusion which Mr. Brooks has done, more particularly as 
regards the young stages of Aquila orientalis, in which opinion Mr. 
Gurney concurs, ("Ibis," part 4, 1873.) The fact is, however, that 
well-authenticated specimens of Aquila orientalis in a spotted condition 
do not exist; and many practical men, Mr. Howard Saunders among 
them, do not believe it has such a stage. It turns out that the dark 
supposed specimens of Aquila ncevioides, alluded to by Mr. Gurney, 
as seen by Captain Elwes on the Bosphorus, (" Ibis," 1870, p. 67,) are 
identical with the Aquila bifasciata of India, and the Aquila orien- 
talis, Cabanis. 
Mr. Gurney, in his letter to the "Ibis," this month (Oct. 1873,) 
writes, — "Are the A. orientalis and A. bifasciata one and the same 
species? I can hardly think so, as though undoubtedly very nearly 
related, the specimens of A. orientalis which I have examined are on 
the average smaller and darker birds than the examples of A. bifasciata 
which have come under my notice." 
I have now laid the principle facts of this extraordinary controversy 
