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Show 24 MR. A. ANDERSON ON THE lJ&n' °> The "delicate yellow-brown" stage (referred to P. Z.S. 1872, p. 622) is, after all, the plumage of the juvenile or nestling bird; tor mine, while in confinement, began to fade, and to assume a very light colour (in the nestling plumage) ; and under the influence ot the sun the change of course would have been far greater. The amount of spots, and even the striation below, in this early stage, is subject to considerable variation ; it is only the nestling birds which turn " yellow-brown," as they are exposed to the influence of the sun and rain during the trying months of June to October before they are fully fledged ; and'in these faded or "yellow-brown" examples the spots and strise are sometimes nearly wanting. I may mention that I too pronounced the small Danzic bird, sent out to this country as A. ncevia by Mr. Dresser, to be a fully adult example of A. hastata, without, at the time, knowing that Mr. Brooks had arrived at the same conclusion^. *31. AQUILA PENNATA, Gmel. The capture of a beautiful adult male on the 22nd of January last enables m e to throw some more light on the plumage of this little Eagle. The three birds in m y collection appear to me to come in the following order:- No. 1 has the whole of the under surface of a uniform rich reddish brown, all the feathers with the exception of the tibial plumes being dark-shafted. No. 2 has the throat and the upper breast buffy white, the feathers dark-shafted as in No. 1 ; lower breast and tibial plumes almost white, tinged with buff. No. 3 has the throat, upper breast, sternum, and tibial plumes white, tinged with fulvous, the feathers generally broadly centred with rufous. The signs of adolescence in this Eagle evidently show more in the under than in the upper surface; for no. 2 is certainly an older bird than no 1, and yet the two, laid side by side, back uppermost, are quite inseparable. No. 3, which I take to be fully adult, has the head and neck of a rich reddish buff, the feathers on the occiput being broadly centred brown ; the upper plumage generally is light brown, the wing-coverts and scapulars being broadly edged with buffy white. No. 2 has some brown feathers on the flanks, clearly indicating that the brown below is the early or first plumage. The following measurements will show the comparative dimensions of both sexes : - $ , length 21*5 inches, wing 16, tarsus 2*8 ; 6> length 18*5, wing 14, tarsus 2*5. 38. CIRCAETUS GALLICUS, Gmel. I have lately sent an account of the breeding of this bird to Mr. Dresser. t Cf. ' Stray Feathers' for 1873, p. 327. I have had access to Mr. Hodgson's drawings, and find that while he has figured the adult bird under the name of " tarsalus," he does not appear to have seen specimens in the striated or spotted stages. |