Page:Stray feathers. Journal of ornithology for India and its dependencies (IA strayfeathersjou11873hume).pdf/351

Notes upon some of the hudian and European Eugles. 327 specimens themselves which I possess are very solid facts which tle best men in Europe cannot contend against.

It is now admitted by Messrs. Gurncy aud Dresser, that the adults of Aquila hastata, and what they call the North German or small race of the spotted eagle, (the true Aguila nevin of the old authors, in their opiniou,) are not to be distinguished; but they contend that the immature birds are different. In opposi- tion to this, I snbmit that the Danzic bird sent me as 14. necia by Mr. Dresser is a veritable 4q. hastata, and immature birds of this species must occur in the same region. The spotted birds which differ may not have been satisfactorily connected with the adults to which they were said to belong: Did any one take the immature one from the nest, and rear it? The statement that the immature plumage of the little Ponneranian spotted eagle is different from that of dq, hastata, I regard, at all events for the present, as theoretical.

I should not be in a position myself to say what the immature plumage of sq. vinilhiana was, unless I had brought up the young from the nest. How do Messrs. Gurney and Dresser prove that the immature of the Pomeranian spotted eagle is distinct from that of 4. hastata ?

They say the immature plumage of 4. hastala has not occurred in Europe, and is not known there, but against this I say, it is only the other day that 19. nogilnik, in the lincated stage was found to occur in Europe, and it is a plentiful bird there! Again A. bifasciata has been bodily overlooked, so that I can quite understaud that neither Messrs. Gurney nor Dresser lave yet seen an immature European 4g. hastata. They will see them, lowever, before long, and the immature typical All, Vifasciala too, unless I am greatly mistaken. They have, I believe, at last seen the lineatel Aq. mogilnik to begin with; at all eveuts they must have heard of it this time, and the others will follow in due course. How long is it since it was denied upon the best authority, that there was such a thing as a lineated Imperial Eagle in Europe, and it was conteuded that the Indian bird was quite distinct from the true imperialis or mogilnik? Now they are uniled, and a distinct Western bird (Aq. adatherti, Brelom) is separated. These birds were not scen, because they were not properly looked after; and after all Jurope with its numerous ornithologists and collectors, and with a climate facilitating the operations of the naturalist to the utmost, so widely different from the scorching Indian one, hus been but very lazily explored, and there is no knowing what may tun up there in the future in the way of identifications.

I do not think that dg. clanga, of Pallas, has any connection