448 MR WILSON ON THE SUPPOSED IDENTITY, &C, 
may be called the prime of life. It has none of the irre- 
gular lighter markings of the Golden Eagle, and its tail is 
strongly barred with pure black and white. 
I fear I have already occupied too much of the Society's 
time on this subject, which I certainly intended to have 
discussed within narrower limits. I shall therefore con- 
clude, by observing, that till such time as the reverse be 
actually demonstrated by the taking of a young bird from 
the nest or eyrie of a breeding Ring-tail, and the sub- 
sequent transmutation into the plumage of the Golden 
Eagle actually proved by the continued observation of the 
same individual, and, also, until the circumstance of certain 
highland districts and islands being inhabited by one of the 
alleged varieties, and not by the other, be satisfactorily ex- 
plained and accounted for, I shall certainly prefer adher- 
ing to the old opinion, that the Ring-tailed and Golden 
Eagles form two distinct species. 
