Mb WILSON ON THE SUPPOSED IDENTITY OF 
is brownish-black. The bill is of a deep blue colour, darker 
towards the tip. Cere and irides yellow. Head and neck 
brown and tawny; the feathers long and pointed, and, 
particularly towards the back of the neck and hinder part 
of the head, tinged with bright ferruginous or rust colour. 
The general colour of the plumage is dark-brown^ with 
shades of tawny and ferruginous. Quill-feathers of a cho- 
colate colour, with white shafts. Legs yellow, large, and 
feathered to the toes ; toes large and scaly ; claws black. 
It bears a close resemblance to the adult bird, but the fea- 
thers on the thighs are lighter in colour, and spotted irre- 
gularly with white." 
If the preceding description be correctly taken, and if I 
was not in error regarding the species from which I took 
it, it would, of course, follow, that the R,ing-tail is not the 
young of the Golden Eagle, and Mr Selby's opinion would 
fall to the ground. Mr Selby, therefore, supposes that 
the bird in Speungl^s collection was the young, not of the 
Golden Eagle, but of the Faico imperialis of Temminck. 
This bird, I presume Mr Selby is aware, is one of re- 
markably rare occurrence in Switzerland, and, indeed, in 
all the western and central parts of Europe. It is, in fact, 
quite a southern species, having its centre of dominion in 
Egypt, and along the coasts of Barbary. The ground- 
colour of all the inferior parts of the plumage in the young 
bird is of a reddish-yellow, or what the French call Isabella- 
colour. The breast is spotted ; but the throat, thighs, and 
abdomen, are Isabella-colour, and quite immaculate. Se- 
veral feathers of the scapularies are spotted with white, 
and these in the adult bird become, as M. Temminck ob- 
serves, (Tun hlanc pur. 
"It will be easy,'' says the author of the Manuel d^Or^ 
nithologie, " to distinguish the Imperial from the Royal or 
Golden Eagle, by the preceding characters, especially by 
