EAGLE. 



159 



golden eagle as to be easily mistaken for it. Once it hap 

 attained maturity however, there should be no difficulty. 

 The imperial eagle is somewhat smaller than his rival, the 

 female measuring not more than thirty-two inches as a rule. 

 It is a little more stoutly built also. Its range is less wide, 

 only southern Europe and Asia seem to know the two royal 

 birds. Iinperialis has the same yellow cere and feet — most 

 eagles have — and a good deal of the same light and chocolate 

 brown, but there resemblance ends. The head and nape of the 

 neck are much lighter, and there is a sequence of lighter 

 feathers descending back and reaching to the tail coverts. 

 The shoulders are covered by patches of pure white, a very 

 clear and distinctive mark. The primaries are almost black, 

 as is the tip of the tail, though its upper parts are considerably 

 lighter. So far as mere looks go, many people would award 

 the palm to the imperial, and not the golden, eagle. 



Opinions as to his other qualities vary immensely, from 

 which it may be gathered that circumstances alter cases in 

 bird life as in our own. "There is gr^at beauty and majesty 

 in his movements," says one writer. "He is little more than 

 a great hulking kite," says another. "Noble and courageous, 

 fiercer even than the golden eagle," writes an admirer. 

 "Beaten by crows," retorts the cynic. "Only in default of 

 live prey will he touch carrion," declares Laudator. "He is 

 generally a foul eater," asserts Detractor. And so the wordy 

 war goes on, the sensible man seeing the true explanation in 

 change of environment. 



Another eagle well known to the Chinese is A. clanga 

 or Falco rapax, as some authorities dub him. He is 

 lighter in tint all over except on the wings and tail. 

 From his tawny colour he is known to the Chinese as the 

 ' yellow eagle," sometimes as the rat-catching eagle, his 

 favourite prey being rodents and the smaller mammals. In 

 some places it would seem that this fare is varied widely, 

 lizards, snakes, and even the larger insects being taken into 

 favour at times. The tawny eagle is not so large as either 

 of the foregoing, its length running to about 28 inches or so. 

 One authority makes A. clanga to be a very degenerate 

 branch of the regal tree, existing, as he says it does, mOre as 

 a parasite than as a bold robber. This it achieves by watching 

 the captures made by other birds of prey and then swooping 

 down to deprive them of their booty. 



The spotted eagle, A. maculata, is slightly smaller still, 

 attaining only some twenty-five or twenty-six inches. But 

 for the spots of white on the tips of his feathers, the spotted 

 eagle would be very much like his nobler cousin, the golden. 

 There are the same yellow cere and feet, the same chocolate 

 brown, more uniformly dark, however, the same bluish 



