492 



yellowish brown; feet pale yellow. Total length about 2 feet, culmen 1*8 inch, wing 17 - 7, tail 9 - 5, 

 tarsus 3'8, middle toe with claw 2 - 5. 



Adult Female (Silesia). Resembles the male, but is larger in size, and rather darker in general coloration 

 of plumage. 



Young (Silesia). General colour dark brown with a chocolate tinge, the upper parts with a faint purplish 

 gloss ; crown and hind neck dotted with small ochreous rufescent spots, and a large patch of this colour 

 on the nape ; back and lesser wing-coverts also dotted with these small spots ; larger wing-coverts and 

 scapulars with large greyish terminal spots ; quills blackish with a purplish gloss, the secondaries 

 brownish black terminated with greyish, the inner secondaries having large irregularly ovate greyish 

 spots at the tip of the feather ; tail blackish washed with grey, all the feathers tipped with ashy grey, 

 the outermost feathers a full inch shorter than the central ones; rump spotted with warm ochreous, 

 the lower tail-coverts creamy white on the terminal portion ; underparts deep chocolate-brown striped 

 with rufescent ochreous ; tarsi dark brown slightly spotted with creamy white ; under tail-coverts 

 creamy ochreous. 



Obs. A somewhat older bird than the young one above described, from Malta, is paler in general colora- 

 tion, the spots on the upper parts and wings have nearly disappeared, and the nape-spot is faded to 

 creamy buff; the spots at the tips of the larger wing-coverts, however, are very distinct, and the under 

 parts of the body are very distinctly striped. 



A fully adult female from Brunswick is much darker than the old male above described, being almost 

 chocolate-brown on the upper parts, — evidently in fresh plumage before it has become worn by the sun 

 and weather. 



Few of our European birds have of late years been the cause of so much discussion in print as 

 the Spotted Eagle and the Steppe and Imperial Eagles, more especially the first-named of these. 

 And it is a subject most difficult of elucidation; for at least three species, and in many cases 

 more, have been confused under the name of Aquila ncevia, and in many instances it is almost 

 impossible to say which species is alluded to under that name. Messrs. Brooks, Hume, Anderson, 

 and others in India, and Messrs. Gurney, Sharpe, and myself have all assisted in heaping up a 

 mass of notes on the subject, which makes it quite a serious matter to attempt to read up the 

 question ; but the result at which we have arrived (and we are now all tolerably well agreed) is 

 that there are two species of small Spotted Eagles — one, Aquila hastata, inhabiting the Eastern 

 Pakearctic Region, and the other, Aquila pomarina, inhabiting the Western Palsearctic Region. 

 Besides these there is the Larger Spotted Eagle (Aquila clanga), which extends from the west of 

 Europe to China, and southward in Africa as far as Sennaar. By no means the least-difficult 

 part of the subject is the question as to which name each of these three species should bear. 

 There is, I think, no doubt that the Indian Lesser Spotted Eagle should bear the name of Aquila 

 hastata ; but it has long been a matter of doubt which names belong to the Larger and Lesser 

 Spotted Eagles. That Aquila ncevia cannot possibly be used for either I have, I think, already 

 satisfactorily demonstrated ; but it may perhaps be interesting to my readers to have more 

 concise data on the subject. Schwenckfeld appears to have been the first to use this name, as far 

 back as 1603 ; and as his work is exceedingly rare, I transcribe his description (Theiotropheum 

 Silesia?, Liber Quartus (Aviarium Silesiee), p. 219-220) as follows : — 



