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Show 187L] RAPTORIAL BIRDS OF INDIA. 685 supposed to have a white scapulary patch, and that the European one, on the other hand, has no lineated stage. Now it will be seen that the only black Imperial got by me had hardly any traces of white feathers, and that they were entirely wanting on one side. This would correspond with what Dr. Tristram has written ; but unfortunately I have at present two more black birds (given to me) which have the white shoulders conspicuous enough, though by no means so large as shown in Bree's plate. I have just examined these three birds with the plate in question, with the following results :- 1. The tail in the European bird has a broad terminal band, and two distinct bars between that and the base of the tail. All three Indian examples have the same terminal band; but instead of the two distinct bars there are several (five or six) wavy marks, somewhat indistinct and irregular. 2. The Indian specimens want the light colour down the centre of the back, though the head agrees well enough. They also want the light ochreous shade between the shoulder and side of neck. 3. The Indian birds are, on the whole, very much blacker, and the white on the scapulary region is not so conspicuous ; in one specimen it is as good as wanting. With regard to the lineated stage, it is by far tbe most common bird in this country. Next in order comes the double-banded one, A. bifasciata, then the plain brown stage with light head, and lastly the fully adult black bird. Of the latter I bagged the only one seen, and of the three first I saw fully a hundred birds. It was m y intention to send home a bird in each stage, as also the black one without white shoulders, to the Secretary, for exhibition at this Meeting; but, unfortunately, the present postal arrangements prevent m y doing so. There is another point regarding which I would wish to say a few words before concluding m y remarks on this very interesting subject. It would appear that the Imperial and Tawny Eagle (A. ncevioides, Cuv.), as also the Spotted Eagle (A. neevia), have been much confused by European writers-to wit, the admission of A. ncevioides into Bree's work, when it had no right to a place, at that time, in the European list*. Again, Captain Elwes, in his interesting paper " on the Birds of Turkey," states that a " series of Imperial, Tawny, and Spotted Eagles could be produced running imperceptibly into each other in size, and nearly similar in colour." I could make further quotations to show that the structural difference between the two races of Eagles, viz. the Imperial in all four stages (and with this I would unite the Indian Tawny Eagle, A. fulvescens), on the one hand, and __. neevia and ncevioides, on the other band, have not been noticed, certainly not pointed out. Leaving alone the question of plumage for the present, I would observe that the shape of the nostril alone is amply sufficient to separate the two races of Eagles. It will be seen that in the former two birds the nostrils are elongated and vertical, wider at the base than at the top, whereas in the two latter * Lord Lilford on the Ornithology of Spain, ' Ibis,' 1865, p. 173. |