1 62 FALCONIFORMES 



disturbance ; they may, however, often be seen circling aloft or 

 winging their way to great distances, while they can hardly be 

 distinguished from Buzzards in misty weather even by experienced 

 keepers. Captures are made with the talons, but Eagles are com- 

 paratively seldom trained for Falconry ; yet the present species 

 has been so used in Europe, as well as by the Kirgiz Tartars, who 

 call it " Bergut " or " Bearcoot." The cry is shrill and yelping. 

 The nest is commonly placed in a tree, though in Scotland such 

 sites are seldom utilized nowadays, a projecting rock on the side 

 of some bare mountain- glen or a sea-girt crag being selected instead. 

 Here a cavity, rather than a ledge, is chosen, and a huge mass of sticks 

 or heather is collected, with a bedding of hair, fur, wool, moss, dry 

 fern and an occasional feather, or more commonly of tufts of Luzula 

 syhatica, garnished with an odd pine-shoot. Two or three eyries 

 are often used in turn, the pile increasing on each occasion. At 

 times the spot can be reached without a rope by a skilful climber, 

 and in some countries nests have been found upon the ground. The 

 two or three eggs — four being quite exceptional — are generally 

 marked with red-brown, crimson, purplish or grey, but, though 

 fine blotches are usual, one, if not more, of the set is frequently 

 white. They are laid very early in spring and — as in other Birds of 

 Prey — not always on successive days. The Golden Eagle is distin- 

 guished from the Sea-Eagle (p. 1 63)by the feathering reaching to the 

 toes, which have only the last joint scutellated, and the remainder 

 reticulated : the adult is normally blackish-brown, with tawny 

 lanceolate nape-plumes and tail mottled with grey ; the young have 

 white bases to the rectrices. The colour, however, varies much. 

 Aquila claiiga, the Spotted Eagle of British lists, and its 

 smaller form, A. pomarina, range across Europe, except the 

 most northern portions, and extend to North Africa, India, 

 and North China, their respective distributions being somewhat 

 uncertain. The colour is brown, with pale nape and light 

 margins to the feathers of the wings and rump ; the manners 

 are those of Eagles generally, but the food includes frogs, reptiles, 

 and grasshoppers, in addition to small mammals and birds. 

 A. hastata of India is hardly separable, and the African A. 

 loahlhergi is very similar, as is the larger A. nipalensis, the 

 Steppe Eagle of the former country. Eastern Europe, Eastern 

 Asia, and, exceptionally, North Africa, a plain brown bird 

 with a fulvous nuchal patch. It commonly builds its nest 



