EAGLES. 
223 
shaft-lines. The booted eagle inhabits all the countries bordering the Mediterranean, 
extending into Southern Africa and South-Eastern Europe, and also occurring in 
Gilgit, India, and Ceylon. It is represented in Australia by the nearly allied. S. 
morphnoides. In India the species under consideration frequents groves, gardens, 
and cultivated lands; and in the neighbourhood of towns and villages inflicts 
serious loss on the owners of pigeons and poultry. Jerdon says that this eagle 
generally swoops down on its prey—which includes small mammals—while circling 
in the air, but that it will occasionally pounce down from a bough. It breeds in 
Spain and other parts of Southern Europe, as well as in India and Africa; the nest 
being apparently always situated in a tree. Writing of the nests observed by him 
in Spain, Lord Lilford states that they always contained two eggs; this seeming to 
be invariably the number laid by this eagle. In Spain the booted eagle is one of 
the most common Accipitrines, arriving late in April, and remaining till October. 
“ The nests,” continues Lord Lilford, “ of which we found several, were generally 
placed on the lowest branches of a tall pine, at the junction of the main trunk, and 
were built of sticks, but inside invariably contained fresh twigs with the green 
leaves adhering to them. ” The breeding-season in Spain lasts from April till June; 
and the oval eggs have greyish or dead white grounds, which may or may not be 
blotched with pale yellowish or reddish brown. The booted eagle is remarkable for 
its shrill piercing scream, which is stated both by Lord Lilford and Mr. Hume to 
be unlike the cry of any other Accipitrine. In Gilgit, this eagle is found from 
March till October; and it breeds there at an elevation of five thousand feet. 
The characters by which the true eagles may be distinguished 
True Eagles. the hawk-eagles having been already indicated under the head¬ 
ing of the latter, it will suffice here 
to refer to some of the leading 
features of the present group. The 
true eagles are all birds of large size, 
and, with the exception of Steller’s 
sea-eagle, include the largest repre¬ 
sentatives of the whole family. In 
all of them the beak is strong and 
of moderate length, curving gradu¬ 
ally from the cere, with a sharp 
point, and nearly straight cutting 
edges; while the nostrils may be 
either oval and oblique or circular. 
The wings are large and long, and 
have the fourth quill rather the 
longest. The feathered metatarsus 
is of moderate length ; and its reticu¬ 
lated scales extend far on to the toes, the feathered metatarsus of the golden eagle, 
which have only a few large scutes 
near the claws; these features at once serving to distinguish the limb of one of 
these birds from that of a sea-eagle. The claws are of moderate size and curvature. 
They are mostly birds of plain and dark-coloured plumage, with the iris of the eye 
