228 
DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. 
of this species being the same as that of the male of the golden eagle (32 inches), 
while that of the male is but an inch less. The body is stoutly built, the tail short, 
and the wings so long as to reach slightly beyond the extremity of the former. In 
the adult bird the general colour of the plumage is blackish brown, becoming 
lighter on the back and tail-coverts; the head and neck are light fulvous: the 
scapulars have the above-mentioned white patch, which is exclusively confined to 
that series of feathers; and the tail is ashy grey, marked with indistinct dark bars 
for the greater part of its extent, but its terminal portion blackish, with a narrow 
fulvous border. The young bird is rather light brown above, with the feathers 
tipped with huffish fawn, so as to give a spotted appearance to the plumage, and 
some of the wing-coverts have whitish ends; the plumage of the under surface 
being tawny fulvous, with the breast feathers margined with brown, so as to look 
as though streaked. The tail is uniform brown, tipped with huffish white. In 
an intermediate stage the brown edgings of the breast-feathers appear to extend 
to their centres, so that the whole plumage becomes brown; and it is when in 
this state that the bird is so often mistaken for the golden eagle. At all ages the 
cere and feet are pale yellow, while the beak is bluish, and the iris brownish 
yellow. The imperial eagle is mainly a southern form, occurring in South- 
Eastern and rarely Central Europe, whence it ranges through Palestine and 
the adjacent countries to India and China. In Northern Africa it is replaced 
by Adalbert’s eagle (Aquila adalberti), which also occurs in Spain, and differs 
by the white patch on the wing extending on to the carpal plumes. In the 
neighbourhood of India the imperial eagle regularly breeds in the Himalaya, 
but the majority of the specimens seen in the plains of India are winter 
visitors, although a few remain to nest in the Upper Punjab. In Southern India 
the species is rare, although it is not uncommon in the high table-lands of the 
Peninsula. 
In India, according to Jerdon, this eagle “prefers the neighbourhood of hills, 
and the bare open country, or thin and low jungle. It may frequently be seen 
seated on the ground, or on a stone on the top of a low hill, till an hour after 
sunrise, when it rises, apparently unwillingly, and takes a cast after game at no 
great elevation, hunting slowly over the bushy valleys and ravines, and occasionally 
over cultivated ground. If unsuccessful in its search, it reseats itself, and after an 
interval again takes wing, and this time soars to a great height, circling slowly in 
the air, and traversing a large extent of country. It pounces on hares, ilorikins, 
rats, lizards, and various other mammals and birds, and in default of these will 
eat carrion. I have several times seen one captured in a net by a portion of 
a carcase of a sheep being put down as a bait. When it does condescend to 
partake of carrion, it allows no other bird to approach till it has satisfied its 
hunger.” 
In Palestine Canon Tristram writes that this truly imperial bird is more 
abundant than in any other country which he had visited, and may be said, in 
summer at least, to replace the golden eagle of Europe. “ There is a beauty and 
majesty in its movements,” the Canon continues, “and in its great fearlessness of 
man, when in search of food, which at once attracts one; while the very distinct 
white scapulars, and the light head, show conspicuously when on the wing. Un- 
