500 



coverts brown only at the base, the rest of the feathers being warm brownish buff ; the lower coverts 

 almost white ; tail blackish brown, tipped with greyish brown ; underparts deep brown, striped with 

 tawny brown ; tarsi dark brown, marked with creamy white ; under tail-coverts creamy buff. 



Obs. The female does not differ from the male, except in size, being rather larger. I found a considerable 

 variation in size in a series of examples ; and the males of the present species which I have examined 

 vary as follows — culmeu 2 - 25 to 2"4 inches, wing 19 - 5 to 21'3, tail 10'5 to 12'0, tarsus 3'9 to 4 - 5 ; and 

 females — culmen 2 - 25 to 24 inches, wing 21 - to 21 - 8, tail ITS to 122, tarsus 4 - 3 to 4 - 5. 



Compared with that of the Lesser Spotted Eagle, the range of the present species is very wide ; 

 for it is found from Western Europe to the far eastern portions of India, and possibly also 

 to China. 



It has been met with, but only as a rare straggler, in Great Britain. Professor Newton 

 (Yarr. Brit. B. 4th ed. i. p. 21) says that the specimen figured in that work was, according to 

 Mr. Davis, "shot in the month of January of the present year (1845) on the estate of Lord 

 Shannon, and was at the time in a fallow field devouring a rabbit. Another bird, similarly 

 marked, but reported to have been of a lighter shade of brown, was shot at the same place 

 within a few days, but was unfortunately not preserved ; both had been noticed during the two 

 previous months sweeping over the low grounds in the neighbourhood, which is near Youghal, 

 and between Castle Martyr and Clay Castle." In the 'Zoologist' for 1861 (pp. 7311 and 7817) 

 Mr. Edward Hearle Rodd records the occurrence of two Spotted Eagles, both immature males, 

 in Cornwall. The first was shot in Hawk's Wood, at Trebartha, near Cheesewring, on the 4th 

 December 1860. The second was killed at St. Mawgan, near St. Columb, at the end of October 

 or beginning of November 1861." 



Thompson (B. of Ireland, i. p. 14) says that a bird which was described to him, and which, 

 he was told, was shot at Horn Head, Donegal, in 1831, was, he believes, a Spotted Eagle; and 

 one is stated by Wise to have been shot near Somerley, Hants, on the 28th December 1861. 

 It has not been obtained in Scotland ; but Mr. Eobert Gray writes (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 8) 

 that he thinks " it is not improbable that the Spotted Eagle has occurred in Skye. On my 

 questioning Mr. Pack (who has been resident here for fourteen years, and eleven of them as 

 gamekeeper) respecting the birds of Skye, he described a Spotted Eagle, though he had never 

 heard of a species being so called, having been killed by one of the shepherds of the late 

 Mr. Macleod, of Orbast, about the year 1840. Soon afterwards he himself saw another, and 

 subsequently, within a short time, either a second bird or the same individual again." There is 

 no doubt that it is the present species and not Aquila jpomarina which has visited the British 

 Isles ; for Mr. Gurney has carefully examined the Cornish-killed examples, and convinced himself 

 that they are referable to Aquila clanga. 



In Scandinavia this Eagle is extremely rare, and has, in fact, only once occurred in Sweden, 

 where one was shot, Professor Sundevall says (Sv. Fogl. p. 232), in Skane in September 1842, 

 and is now preserved in Lund. It has not been met with in Finland ; and it is difficult to define 

 its range in Russia, as it has been so generally confused with its smaller ally ; but doubtless the 

 present species is the one which predominates there, as I have never seen an example of the 

 Lesser Spotted Eagle in collections from Russia. The present species is found in the wooded 



