102 BOOTED EAGLE. 
This beautiful little Eagle, called " Booted," from the thickly 
feathered tarsi, inhabits the eastern parts of Europe and adjoining parts 
of Asia, from whence it migrates occasionally into France and Spain. 
A specimen was shot at Meudon, in March, 1826; another at Bar- 
sur-Seine, in October, 1838; and others in the neighbourhood of Saumur 
and Bagneres-de-Bigorre, St. Etienne, and Bayonne; and M. Degiand, 
on whose authority we give the above localities, possesses a specimen 
which was killed in the department of the Hautes Pyrenees, on the 
20th. of May, 1838. M. le Comte Von der Miihle mentions in his 
work on- the " Birds of Greece," that he obtained many specimens 
in that country, and that two individuals were captured near Munich. 
It occurs in India. 
The Booted Eagle is described as very courageous, and attacks birds 
larger than itself, which alone would distinguish it from any Buzzard, 
were any point of difference now needed. It lives chiefly upon small 
mammals, reptiles, and large insects. It builds in high trees in Spain, 
and sometimes in the Pyrenees, laying two, rarely three short eggs, 
of a dirty, slightly blue white, and with a few very indistinct reddish 
spots; the long diameter being nearly two inches, and the short one 
about an inch and a half. Gould's very fine figure of this bird was 
from a specimen sent him by Baron Feldegg, which was killed in 
Austria. There is a specimen in the Norwich Museum, which was 
shot on the nest at Bar-le-duc, in France, which must therefore be 
added to its European nesting localities. 
The following is from Mr. Savile Reid's " Gibraltar Notes:" — "1871, 
April, 11th. I shot a female Booted Eagle this morning. It was one 
of a pair which were building on the horizontal branch of an oak tree, 
overhanging a "laguna" in the cork woods. The nest was large and 
round, built of sticks lined with small twigs of oak, quite fresh and 
green. It contained no eggs. The eye of this bird when removed 
from the skull, measured one inch in diameter and about three-quarters 
of an inch in depth. 
1872. April 21st. Went to-day to look after the nest of A. pen- 
nata near the Mile. Both old birds were on the nest, and in all 
probability there were eggs; but we could not settle the question, as 
the boy at second Venti, had hurt his leg and could not climb. None 
of us were equal to the tree, although we all had a try. On the 
28th. of April, we went with the boy and sent him up the tree. There 
was only one egg in the nest, which was of a dingy white, and 
measured two inches and one-eighth by one inch and six-eighths. It 
was perfectly elliptical. 
1873. April 27th. Being wet weather we did not visit the Booted 
