THE GOLDEN EAGLE 117 
short, roundish, stout, and feathered to the point. The toes are covered with 
roundish scales, padded beneath with soft papille, on each of the toes are four 
terminal scutella. The claws are strong, curved, and sharp, the first and second 
largest, the fourth comparatively very small. 
The cere is large and bare above, but its sides and a broad space from the 
bill to the eye are covered with bristle feathers. The plumage is close and com- 
pressed, with the exception of the feathers of the abdomen which are loose and 
downy; the wings are very long and broad, and, when closed, reach nearly to the 
end of the tail; the tail is of moderate length, straight, broad, and slightly 
rounded. 
The general colour of the plumage is dark chocolate brown, somewhat glossed 
with purple; on the crown of the head and nape the feathers are fulvous and 
elongated; the head, neck, tarsus, and inner sides of the thighs light yellowish brown; 
tail brownish black, more or less variegated with grey. The young are brown, 
and have the basal half of the tail white. The female resembles the male, but is 
much larger. In the adults the bill and claws are black, shaded towards the base 
with greyish-blue; cere and skin at base of bill rich yellow; irides hazel; toes 
rich yellow. 
Adult males vary in length from thirty to thirty-four inches, with an average 
alar extent of about six feet; females vary from thirty-four to thirty-nine inches 
in length, with an alar extent of seven feet, three inches. 
The plumage of the adult Golden Eagle is brightest immediately after the 
moult; the upper parts are then a rich chocolate brown, with purplish reflections, 
and the tawny feathers of the nape and crown are of aricher gold; the brightness 
of the feathers gradually fades; after examining upwards of fifty Scotch specimens 
Macgillivray came to the conclusion that birds when they first attain the mature 
dress are darkest, and that older birds become lighter with advancing age. In a 
young bird, recently shot on Ben Nevis, and examined by the writer, the head 
and neck are covered with pale rust coloured, elongated feathers, each feather 
tipped with buffish white; and the plumage of the back is a light brown; the 
small upper wing-coverts along the carpus are of a pale rust colour, slightly tipped 
with buffy white; throat and under parts blackish brown; tarsi very pale fawn 
colour, almost white at their juncture with the toes; tail blackish brown at tip, 
basal part white; all the body feathers have their basal ends white. 
VoL. 111 T 
