Mr. R. B. Sharpe’s Catalogue of Accipitres. 219 
tirely agree in the opinion expressed by Mr. Dresser in the 
P. Z. S. for 1872, p. 864, and subsequently confirmed in his 
article on this Eagle in the f Birds of Europe/ that (C it is a 
very distinct species from the Imperial Eagle of Eastern 
Europe and Indiaits distinctness is also fully recognized 
in Mr. Sharpe's volume. 
The coloration of A. adalberti in it's nestling plumage is 
absolutely similar to the typical coloration of A. rapax {ncevi- 
oides) at the same age; and widely as these two species differ 
in their adult dress, the typical A. rapax , on first leaving the 
nest, can only be distinguished from the nestling A. adalberti 
by its smaller size. The distinction, however, is always ap¬ 
parent on a comparison of birds of the same sex, but not 
otherwise; and where the sex of the specimen is unknown, 
I believe there is always the possibility of a young male A . 
adalberti being mistaken for a young female A. rapax , and 
vice versa. Nor does the coincidence of coloration end here; 
for A. adalberti , in its second stage, exhibits a somewhat 
particoloured plumage on the mantle and breast, two dif¬ 
ferent shades of rufous brown frequently appearing side by 
side on the same feather; and in this state of plumage it 
bears a decided resemblance to the fully adult dress of A. 
rapax. 
Mr. Sharpe's description of the young female A. adalberti 
appears to have been taken from a specimen little, if at all, 
removed from the nestling-stage; but Mr. Dresser, in his 
f Birds of Europe,' describes one, apparently slightly older, 
as having the “ head, neck, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts 
light sandy brown, here and there intermixed with darker 
brown and dull rufous feathers." Two specimens in which 
this intermixture has made some further progress are figured 
from the life, in the second edition of Dr. Bree's r Birds of 
Europe/ These birds, a male and a female, were brought 
from Spain by Lord Lilford, having been taken from the nest 
in the pine-forests near the mouth of the Guadalquivir during 
the first fortnight of May 1872; by the kindness of Dr. Bree 
they came into my possession on the 10th December, 1873, 
the drawing from which Dr. Bree's plate was taken having 
