EAGLE. 149 
dusky at the base, white at the end ; the legs of a light yellow, feathered 
but little below the knee. The male is rather darkest in colour. 
In the young bird the bill is bluish black ; cere, sides of the mouth, 
and orbits, yellow ; irides light hazel. The feathers on the head and 
upper part of the neck are long and narrow, dusky brown at their ends, 
tawny towards the base, and white at the roots ; the whole body dark 
brown, intermixed with rust-colour; the tail and its coverts mottled 
with yellowish white, dark and faint ash-coloured brown : the quills are 
of a dark chocolate colour ; the shafts white towards the base ; the legs 
strong and yellow, feathered very little below the knee, and measuring 
two inches in circumference ; the claws black ; the inner one, which is 
largest, is two inches long, much hooked, and nearly one inch round at 
the base. 
The specimen from which this description is taken was killed by Sir 
Robert Littleton’s game-keeper in Shropshire, early in the spring of 
1792, was presented to us by Lord Valentia, and is now in our museum. 
It was accompanied by a letter from Sir Robert, the purport of which 
was, that his servant being out shooting saw two large birds feeding on 
the carcase of a sheep, which appeared recently killed ; that having 
nothing but small snipe-shot with him he turned back, intending to go 
home for larger ; that the eagles then followed him, and frequently 
came so near that he concluded they meant either to atttack him or his 
dogs. Suddenly losing sight of one, he judged it was very near him 
behind, and being somewhat alarmed, turned round and shot at it in a 
hurry ; after which the bird flew some hundred yards, and dropped. On 
his a]3proach it was vomiting blood ; and he killed it after a struggle of 
half an hour. He adds, that it was the largest of the two. 
The other eagle continued in the neighbourhood some time after, 
and roosted in the high trees of a wood belonging to Sir Robert 
Littleton. 
Another of this species was shot in Epping Forest a few weeks 
before. Others have been frequently killed in the New Forest ; and 
we are informed that scarce a year passes without one being seen in that 
part of the country ; two of which we have seen nailed up in the hall 
of the lodge at Lyndhurst. 
John Maxwell, Esq. of Ardbraccan, in Ireland, favoured us with two 
young birds of this species ahve, taken the preceding year on a moun- 
tainous precipice, or craggy cliff, called Slieve Donald, impending over 
the sea, in the county of Down. That gentleman informed us that two 
men, covered with sackcloth and armed, were lowered by ropes to the 
area, which, with considerable difliculty, they robbed of two young, 
