74 PALCONID^. 



Gen. Aquila. — Briss. 



Bill straight at the base, very much curved at the tip. Sides com- 

 pressed. Wings, 4th and 5th quills longest and equal. Tarsi feathered 

 to base of toes. 



Aquila chryssetos, Lin. ; Dumont, Bid. Sci. Nat. i. p. 339 ; 

 Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 55, No. 26; Stray Feathers, i. p. 157; Sharpe, Cat. 

 Ace. p. 236. Aquila fulva, Sav. Descr. Ois. Be Hgypt ; Shelley, B. 

 Egypt. — The Golden Eagle. 



Adult Male. — Crown of the head brown ; nape and hind neck pale 

 orange brown, the feathers lanceolate, with brown bases ; sides of the 

 face paler. Lores greyish white. Cheeks blackish. Back, scapulars 

 and wing-coverts dark brown, the latter and scapulars margined slightly 

 paler. Greater wing-coverts with brownish mottlings. Primaries 

 dark brown, blackish towards their tips, basally white on their inner 

 webs and clopded or mottled with brown. Tail nearly square, the 

 middle feathers slightly elongated. At the tip it is dark brown or 

 nearly black, greyish basally ; the intervening space brown and much 

 mottled. Under surface of body dark brown; the thigh, leg and under 

 wing-coverts pale brown, tinged or washed with tawny. Cere yellow- 

 Bill bluish-horn colour, darker at the tip. Legs yellow. Irides hazel. 



Length. — 35-5 to 40 inches, wing 24'5 to 28, tail 14 to 17, tarsus 

 3-8 to 4'5. The young has the plumage of a lighter shade. The 

 feathers of the back, scapulars and tertials brown, basally broadly 

 white and showing through. The tail broadly black terminally, white 

 or ashy at the base, and mottled with brown. Under suface of body 

 light brown, the feathers basally white. The thigh and under tail- 

 coverts tawny rufous. Adult female is larger than the male. 



Hab. — The whole of Europe and N. Asia, extending into India and 

 N. China. Has been found in the Punjab, and in the Himalayas. 

 In Sind it occurs on the hills dividing Sind from Khelat; also in the 

 Bolan, Beloochistan, and probably extends into Persia and Afghanistan. 



Aquila heliaca, Savign. Besc. Egyp. p. 459 ; Gould. B. Eur. 

 pi. 5; Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 13, Sharpe, Gat. Ace. p. 238. Aquila im- 

 perialis. Guv. Regne. Anirn. i. p. 325; Gray, III. Ind. Zool. ii. p. 28; 

 Jerd. B. of Ind. i. p. 57, No. 27; Hume, Rough Notes, i. p. 142; 

 Stray Feathers, i. p. 157; Murray, Hdbk, Zool., Src, Sind. p. IOq! 

 Aquila mogilnik, StricM. Dm. Syn. p. 57 {S. G. Gmel.). Aquila 

 bifasciata, Saund. P. Z. S. 1871. — The Imperial Eagle. 



Young.— Ahove rather light brown, the back feathers mostly shaded 

 down the middle with ashy and on the margins with purplish ; all 

 the feathers of the upper surface pointed with buffy fawn colour, 

 giving a spotted character to the plumage ; head and neck tawny buff) 

 the feathers with clear brown bases, which show through more or less 

 and impart a streaked appearance; the plumes of the hind neck long 

 and lanceolate, brown like the back, with tawny streaks down the 

 centre ; wing-coverts brown, pointed with fulvous hke the back • the 

 greater and median coverts with broad buffy-white terminal spots 



