110 BRITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 
Family—FALCONIDAE. 
SPOTTED EAGLE. 
Aguila nevia, GMEL. 
EN examples of this small Eagle which, in its spotted plumage, is the 
immature form of a reddish-brown bird resembling a Golden Eagle 
in miniature, and is a straggler to this country from Central and Southern 
Europe, have been recorded, and others may yet be expected to visit us, getting 
mingled with autumn migrants. Two were shot near Youghal, in Ireland, in 
January, 1845; two were obtained in Cornwall, the first, on 4th December, 1860, 
was shot in Hawk’s Wood, the property of Francis Rodd, Esq., of Trebartha, and 
was for a long time in the fine collection of British Birds formed by his uncle, 
Mr. E. H. Rodd, of Penzance; the second was shot in November, 1861, in the 
parish of St. Mawgan, near St. Columb, and was gorged with horse-flesh when 
killed; it was a beautiful specimen, and was placed in the Truro Museum. 
Another, at Somerley, Hants, December 28th, 1861. One was picked up dead on 
Walney Island, Lancashire, in 1875; one was obtained in Northumberland, October 
31st, 1885; while in the autumn of 1891, a small flock appears to have reached 
the south-eastern counties, out of which two were shot, and one secured alive. 
Besides these, an Eagle, shot on the cliffs of Lundy Island, by Mr. S. D. B. 
Heaven, in the winter of 1858, as it rose off a rabbit it was devouring, and which 
fell into the sea, was believed to be an example of the Spotted Eagle from a few 
of the larger feathers that were recovered. 
To give fuller particulars of the most recent visitation:—On October 2oth, 
1891, a farm labourer, when working in a field at Elmstead, near Colchester, saw 
a large bird alight that allowed him to capture it, that proved to be a young 
Spotted Eagle, in an exhausted condition. This bird subsequently passed, still 
alive, into the possession of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, of Tring, who permitted 
Lord Lilford to have a drawing made from it by Mr. Thorburn for his Coloured 
Plates of British Birds. Another, shot on the Sudbourne Hall estate, near Wick- 
ham Market, Suffolk, November 4th, I89I, a young male, was sent to Messrs. 
Pratt & Sons, the well-known bird-stuffers, of Brighton, and was admirably mounted 
by them. On dissection the remains of a water-rat and a Partridge were found 
