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Show 1875.] RAPTORIAL BIRDS OF INDIA. 23 30. AQUILA HASTATA, Less. (Plate III. figs. 1 & 2.) An account of the nidification of this Eagle has already appeared in ' The Ibis;' and the nestlings which I brought down from Saharunpore enable me to supply the missing link as regards the early stages in the plumage of this interesting bird. Besides the three already referred to, I have recently had an opportunity of examining two more which Mr. Brooks has this season taken from their nests; and as the young birds appear to be subject to a good deal of variation in the amount aud distribution of their spots & c , I proceed to give general characters instead of confining myself to the description of a single specimen only. Description of fully-plumaged nestling between three and four months old.-Length 23*5 inches, wing 16*5, tail 9*5, tarsus 3*7 (bird apparently not fully grown). Bill black, plumbeous blue towards the base ; cere and gape bright yellow; feet dull yellow; claws black ; irides dark brown. Above rich glossy brown; feathers on the top of the head and hind neck tipped with fulvous ; upper tail-coverts light brown, barred with white ; scapulars, ridge, bend of wings, and wing-coverts tipped with fulvous spots of a larger size ; wing on being opened out shows two, and sometimes three bands, caused (as the case may be) by the greater wing-coverts, secondaries, and tertials being broadly edged with fulvous and greyish white, shaded off in the latter into the darker part of the feathers; primaries uniform black; secondaries brown, profusely barred with hoary grey; tertials pale brown, similarly barred and broadly edged with greyish white; tail dark brown, broadly edged with greyish white, and barred with dark grey. Beneath brown, the pectoral and abdominal feathers having central and terminal stripes of rich fulvous ; the under tail-coverts and tibial plumes are broadly barred with fulvous of a lighter shade. Description of nestling after the first moult, when about eighteen months old.-Colour of soft parts and dimensions the same; but the primaries and tail-feathers do not appear to be fully grown. With the first moult the bird assumes a much darker colour throughout, and loses a good many of the spots on the wings and scapulars, but not those on the head; these, it seems, disappear gradually; and the "entirely spotless" stage (P. Z. S. 1872,p. 623), in all probability, is not assumed before the third or fourth moult. Although the bands on the wings have nearly vanished, the spots on the shoulders have reappeared in a more decided form, being larger, darker, and somewhat confluent along the ridge of the wings; the upper tail-coverts have become darker, and are now free from bars; the secondaries, tertials, and tail-feathers still retain the bars which are so characteristic of the younger stage ; and these, too, may not wholly disappear before several moults. The chief feature, however, in the second stage is the disappearance of the striation on the under surface ; the colour below is now of a uniform dark brown, with the exception of the feathers between the thighs and the tibial plumes, which still retain a few indistinct fulvous transverse marks. |
