Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Accipitres. 213 
inside of the thighs white*, whilst, on the other hand, I have 
examined five Old-World specimens which are characterized 
by the white base of the tail, indicative of immaturity, but 
which all have brown tarsi. As, however, they are none of 
them nestling birds, it is of course possible (though I hardly 
think it probable) that the tarsi in these specimens may have 
been originally white, as they undoubtedly are in the great 
majority of young European examples, and may have become 
brown previously to the white band having ceased to exist on 
the base of the tail. The specimens to which I here refer are:— 
one from Lapland and one from the Himalayas, both of which 
are in the Norwich Museum ; and three in the British Mu¬ 
seum, one of which is merely recorded as from India, a second 
from Nepal, and the third from the Hazara district of the 
Punjab, the last-named specimen having been brought up 
from the nest by Captain W. H. Unwin, who has carefully 
recorded its progress towards maturity in the P. Z. S. for 
1874, p. 210. Captain Unwin speaks of this bird as having 
originally had white down on the tarsi, but apparently not 
white feathers; this specimen was taken from the nest on the 
13th of May, 1871, and died in the autumn of the following 
year: the exact date of its death is not given by Captain 
Unwin; but I gather from his account that it was then about 
sixteen months old. On the 1st of August, 1871, Captain 
Unwin made the following note respecting this nestling:— 
“ Has grown a great deal during the past month, and has 
everywhere assumed the dark brown plumage shown in his 
mother, except on the inner and lower part of the thighs and 
tarsi, where a good deal of white down remains uncovered ; 
the head has assumed its full covering of lanceolate golden 
chestnut feathers, and the same colour is apparent on the 
shoulders and in front of the thigh-coverts ; it is everywhere 
of a darker and richer shade than its mother, owing probably 
* Since the above was written Mr. Salvin has been so good as to send 
me the following memorandum respecting an immature Golden Eagle 
from North America in the Cambridge Museum:—“It has the tarsi and 
basal half of the tail of a dirty creamy white colour, the former being 
much paler than in the adult bird.” 
SER. IV.-VOL. I. 
Q 
