112 BrITISH BIRDS, WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 
roughly speaking, that the spots are lost with advancing years, and that the 
plumage of adults is of a more or less uniform dark brown. I have kept several 
Spotted Eagles in captivity at Lilford, and find them very peaceable and friendly 
inter se.’ The Spotted Eagle is known to feed also upon various insects, such as 
grasshoppers and locusts, and upon carrion. 
According to Seebohm, the smaller, or western, form of the Spotted Eagle 
ranges from Northern Germany, Pomerania, and the Baltic Provinces of Russia, 
through Poland to the Caucasus; while the larger, or eastern form is found across 
Asia Minor and Central Asia as far as India; it also occurs in Turkey, Italy, and 
rarely in Spain. In winter both forms migrate to the south so far as Abyssinia. 
The Spotted Eagle nests early in May, building a large flat structure of 
sticks almost invariably in a tree, and lining the nest with fresh twigs, leaves, or 
grass. The eggs are generally two, rarely three, in number, some the writer has 
from Mark, in Brandenburg, exactly resemble those of the Rough-legged Buzzard, 
but are much larger in size; Seebohm calls them miniatures of those of the 
Golden Eagle; they measure from 2°65 to 2°3 inches, by from 2°15 to 2°0 inches; 
some of them are very handsomely marked. The larger eggs of the Steppe 
Eagle, Aguila nipalensis, have sometimes done duty in collections for the eggs of 
the Spotted Eagle. 
In the Spotted Eagle stage, that is in the plumage of the first year, the 
whole of the upper parts are dark purplish brown, the scapulars, wing-coverts, and 
innermost secondaries, have a terminal yellowish-white spot; the spots on the 
wing-coverts being small on the top of the wing and increasing in size until the 
lower feathers are broadly tipped with whitish; on the nape the feathers are 
elongated, and some of them are tipped with fulvous; tail and primaries dark 
purplish brown; bill bluish horn at the base, dark horn at the tip; irides hazel; 
cere and feet yellow; claws dark horn; under parts brown, streaked with rufous; 
thighs covered on the outside with yellowish feathers, streaked on the top with 
rufous brown; on the inside dark purplish brown; tail and secondaries tipped 
with greyish. 
The bird in the fourth year figured by Lord Lilford is a rufous brown all 
over, some tawny feathers on the nape, back, secondaries, primaries, and tail, 
darker brown with a purplish reflection, some of the lower wing-coverts have 
small spots of yellowish white on their tips; under parts and thighs tawny brown. 
The length of the male Spotted Eagle is about two feet, the female is slightly 
larger. 
