214 
Mr. J. H. Gurney’s Notes on 
to its not having been exposed to the weather.” This Eagle 
and its mother are now preserved in the British Museum, and 
are certainly the most richly coloured Golden Eagles that I 
have ever seen from any locality. They are both of them very 
dark-coloured birds; and some of the newly acquired feathers of 
the young one approach more nearly to an actual black than 
those of any other specimen which I have examined. These 
birds are also especially noticeable for the colouring of the 
thighs, which are deep purplish brown on their outer, and 
rich rufous on their inner sides, the latter being also the 
colour of the tarsi, as well as of the under-tail coverts ; the 
abdomen is of a dark hue, not materially differing from that 
of the exterior surface of the thighs. The striking manner in 
which the peculiarities of colouring seen in the old bird 
are reproduced in its offspring is, I think, particularly in¬ 
teresting. 
The British Museum also possesses a very similarly, though 
rather less deeply coloured specimen, which formed part of 
Major-General Hardwicke’s Indian collection. 
Whilst on the subject of the variations of colouring to which 
the Golden Eagle is subject, I must not omit to refer to the 
quotation from the writings of Mr. N. A. Severtzoff, for which 
we are indebted to Mr. Dresser*, and which seems to imply 
that, in the opinion of that eminent Russian naturalist, there 
exist in Central Asia and in the Southern Ural Golden Eagles 
in which the white base of the tail, elsewhere an indication 
of immaturity, is a permanent character. Of the correctness 
of this opinion I am not in a position to judge; but I have 
ascertained, by the examination of specimens, that the white 
on the base of the tail of the Golden Eagle disappears with 
the advance of age in the following countries—North Ame¬ 
rica, Scotland, Sweden, France, Spain, and Greece. I have 
also seen two Asiatic specimens (Captain Unwin’s Hazara 
female, and the female obtained in India by Major-General 
Hardwicke, to both of which I have already alluded) in which 
there was no white on the rectrices beyond a very slight mot¬ 
tling on the inner webs. 
* Vide Ibis for 1875, p. 100. 
