7 [Vol. xi. 



first plumage. The old bird has a dark ferruginous head, 

 hind-neck, rump, and belly, and the mantle and crop are 

 blackish brown with bright ferruginous wedge-shaped marks. 

 As to A. albicans of Riippell, the supposed old, whitish, birds 

 are really only bleached individuals, and the fully adult bird 

 is dark blackish brown all over. Tracing the variations of age 

 from this stage backwards, by means of careful examination 

 of moulting specimens, and by comparison of others shot off 

 the nests, I have come to the conclusion that the first 

 plumage of this bird is, in typical specimens, clear earthy 

 brown, not unlike the young of A. nipalensis, but without 

 the ochraceous wing-bars and tail-coverts of the young 

 A. nipalensis. Intermediate stages are not unlike the old 

 A. rapax, but the rufous colour of the latter is replaced by 

 more or less dirty clay- colour, and the w r edges on the dark 

 parts are more irregular. Both forms are quite the same 

 as regards their proportions, and intermediate specimens 

 occur also; hence A. albicans can be considered only as a 

 sub-species of A. rapax. The latter is distributed over the 

 whole of Africa, only Lower Egypt excepted. A. albicans, 

 though more common in Abyssinia, is found in north-western 

 Africa too, but never met with in South and West Africa. 



" In India this group is represented by A. vindhiana. This 

 form is very variable, not only in its coloration, but also in 

 the variations due to age, and some birds assume at once a 

 plumage strikingly similar to the third plumage of others. 

 About five per cent, of the specimens of this Eagle cannot be 

 with certainty distinguished from A. albicans, and hence I 

 can recognize A. vindhiana only as a sub-species of the 

 A. rapax group. The proportions are the same as in the 

 African Tawny Eagles, and some specimens of A. vindhiana, 

 quite typical as regards their coloration, are as large as the 

 largest A. rapax. 



"In the variations of A. vindhiana there is one always 

 to be recognized, in which the dark brown coloration is 

 replaced by mouse- grey. The amount of the variations 

 dependent on age is smaller in this form than in the typical 

 one, because the mantle and the crop are always grey from 



