518 



Adult Male. Similar in plumage, but measures : — Total length 29 inches, culmen 2 - 8, height of bill at 

 base V2, wing 23 - 3, tail 12, tarsus 3 - 8, centre toe without claw 2 - 2. 



Young Male. Head, neck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts light sandy brown, here and there intermixed 

 with darker brown and dull rufous feathers ; rump and upper tail-coverts pale creamy rufous ; tail 

 sandy grey, edged and tipped with pale rufous brown ; primaries dark brown ; secondaries dull brown, 

 edged and tipped with creamy yellow; underparts generally dull uniform sandy brown, tinged with 

 rufous ; under tail- and wing-coverts pale creamy rufous. 



The wing- and tail-feathers in this specimen are considerably abraded, and show that they have been worn 

 some time. A very young specimen, sent home alive by Lord Lilford, was much more uniform in 

 colour, the plumage in general being dull creamy sand-colour, washed with rufous. 



Another young bird, from the collection of Lord Lilford, resembles the one he sent over alive, except that 

 that the entire plumage appears faded to an extremely pale sandy colour, there being no trace of rufous 

 whatever in the plumage. It appears that the first plumage is uniform rufous sandy brown, which, 

 after being worn some time, gets much faded. From this the bird gradually assumes the adult 

 plumage, being in the intermediate stage party-coloured. 



Young Female assuming the mature plumage (near Seville, October 1869). Head and nape as in the adult; 

 back, rump, and upper tail-coverts as in the younger bird above described, but here and there marked 

 with large blotches of dark umber-brown, many of the feathers having one web or the terminal portion 

 dark brown ; tail as in the younger bird, except that a single feather of the adult plumage is pushing 

 forward ; quills as in the younger bird ; wing-coverts, about half of them the young plumage, the 

 remainder being the dark feathers of the adult bird ; many of the feathers along the upper edge of 

 the wing pure white ; underparts as in the young bird, but here and there with large blotches of dark 

 umber-brown. 



This Eagle, so distinct from the Imperial Eagle of Eastern Europe, both in the fully adult and 

 also in the young plumages, was first described as a distinct species by Dr. Ludwig Brehm, at 

 the meeting of the German Ornithological Society held at Stuttgart in 1860, from specimens sent 

 by his son, Dr. Reinhold Brehm, from Spain, and by the latter referred to as a distinct species, 

 for which he proposed the name of Aq. adalberti, after his patron, Prince Adalbert of Prussia. 

 All the examples, three in number, obtained by Mr. R. Brehm, were in the immature plumage, 

 and were then by many naturalists supposed to be referable, not to a new species, but to the 

 Tawny Eagle of Africa ; and until quite lately, when specimens in all stages of plumage were 

 obtained by Lord Lilford, Major Irby, and Mr. Howard Saunders in Spain, Brehm's name was 

 placed amongst the numerous synonyms of the Tawny Eagle. When, in December 1872, I 

 exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society a large series of Imperial Eagles, and pointed 

 out that the Imperial Eagle of Spain really was distinct from the eastern bird, I myself was in 

 doubt as to whether Brehm's name would stand for this species, and proposed to call it Aquila 

 leucolena, from its conspicuous white shoulders; but having since then carefully compared 

 Brehm's descriptions with a large series of specimens, in various stages of plumage, I have come 

 to the conclusion that his birds must be referable to the present species, and his name will 

 therefore stand. I think it probable that, had he been fortunate enough to possess as large a 

 series from Spain as I now have before me, he would have made the synonymy of this bird con- 

 siderably more voluminous than it now is ; for scarcely two specimens are alike. At present the 

 White-shouldered Eagle is only known from Spain, Portugal, and North-western Africa ; but it is 



