98 STRIATED EAGLE. 
to me, and my Tartar agrees, an old bird. The groundwork of the 
feathers are lighter— more cream-coloured. The under tail coverts 
are still paler, as well as the legs, while those of the wings and tail 
are of a light brown, and do not contain a spot at all approaching 
the dark chocolate of the Imperial. It is certainly difficult to imagine 
this bird to be an immature Imperial. The third wing feather is the 
longest but by very little. My Tartar still maintains his opinion, and 
points out differences in the shape of the claws and beak. Length in 
the flesh thirty-four inches and a half, wing twenty-three inches, middle 
claw and toe three inches and three quarters. Tip of beak dark lead 
colour, base light horn. The bird was snared in a bustard decoy." 
Dr. Cullen does not send any description of the male bird which 
was trapped on the nest containing the eggs, and I therefore snpply 
the omission from the skin. Upper parts — top of head, nape, and 
back of neck striated with two shades of rufous brown; upper part 
of back brown with lighter colour along the shafts. The long scapulars 
and wing coverts two shades of brown. Upper tail coverts chesnut, 
some of the feathers being nearly white, and mingled inferiorly with 
brown; the two lowest feathers which project upon the tail pure light 
cream-colour. Primaries black brown; secondaries lighter brown, with 
some of the feathers bordered with cream-colour. Tail brown, the 
two upper feathers lighter than the others, which are more or less 
bordered with cream-colour, the third feathers from the sides having 
about eight indistinct bars of creamy white on their inner webs. Lower 
parts. — Neck and throat like the head and nape. Crop and abdomen 
rufous, each feather bordered with dark brown: lower part of abdomen, 
under tail coverts, thighs, and tarsi tawny cream-colour; under wing 
coverts rufous, with dark horn markings ending in white; wing lining 
slaty brown. Under tail feathers dark brown, all more or less indis- 
tinctly barred with eight transverse bands of creamy white. First 
primary short, and not so long as the sixth; the second, third, fourth, 
and fifth nearly equal, but the third and fourth longest. 
Dr. Cullen says that the young of the Imperial (A. heliaca) are never 
striated. This exactly tallies with the young of the Spanish form, 
which, as before remarked, has probably without reason been separated 
specifically from Aquila heliaca. 
How strange it would be were birds so nearly alike in adult age 
as A. heliaca and the so-called A. Adalberti to differ so widely in 
their penultimate plumage. How strange that the young of Adalberti 
should not breed in its immature plumage, while its closely allied 
congener should assume a striated cream-coloured dress, and lay eggs 
upon a rock near the ground not two thirds the size of its parents' 
