STRIATED EAGLE. 99 
ova, while the latter is never known in the Dobrudsha to build any- 
where but in trees, and whose eggs are as well known as those of any- 
European bird! And yet this is what we are asked to believe! 
There is a striated bird in the Zoological Gardens from China, 
whence it was received in 1871, with which as Mr. Howard Saunders 
remarks the iris of a bird not then very young. This bird has, I 
believe, a feather or so tending towards the black plumage. It ought 
now to be as black as the birds figured as A. heliaca or A. 
Adalberti. I wrote to the Secretary for information, but, like almost 
every other ornithologist I have had any communication with, he seems 
to fight shy of the question, and asks me to go up and look at the bird. 
I unfortunately could not do this in time for admission of the present 
notice. My friend Mr. Leith Adams has however examined the bird 
for me with his usual kindness and skill. He writes, "The Chinese 
specimen is decidedly showing dark feathers on the breast, belly, and 
back, and seems to me on the change. Rapacious birds take often 
five years to complete their adult plumage in captivity, where it may 
be protracted. The bird agrees very well with the Mesopotamian, 
Chinese, and Bulgarian birds in the neighbouring cages, several of 
whom are of the same light plumage. Don't trust too much to these 
points in rapacious birds." 
The range of the Striated Eagle appears to be from Turkey east- 
wards to China. Its habits have been detailed. Should it ultimately 
prove to be the immature form of Aquila heliaca I shall at least have 
done something towards eliciting the truth, by figuring and describing 
the bird and its eggs, while no great harm will be done by adopting 
a provisional English name, but, on the contrary, the elucidation of 
the question will have been thereby facilitated. It is unnecessary to 
describe the eggs, as they have been faithfully figured. 
Dr. Gustavus Radde, in his "Reisen im Suden Von Ost-Siberien in 
den Jahren, 1855 — 1859," has some remarkable observations about the 
Aquila imperialis. The bird met with in the countries through which 
he travelled was that which we now know as Aquila heliaca, and of 
this he says: "I brought with me from the Daurian plains a young 
female (not yet two years old) of the Imperial Eagle. It was killed 
there on the Tarei-nor, April 1st., (13th.,) 1856, and bears the youthful 
plumage, which is much rubbed all over, a few feathers of the second 
order being alone fresh. On the body scarcely any traces of the 
moulting are now existing. After the moulting of the first youthful 
plumage (according to Sewerzoff's observation) the white shoulder 
feathers appear in the females, while they do not appear in the males 
till the second moult." 
