records six occurrences of the Spotted Eagle in our
Islands; to these I can add one killed at Somerley,
Hants, on December 28, 1861, and three obtained in
the late autumn of 1891 in East Anglia. My Plates
are taken from two of these last three birds, the dark-
coloured one from a living specimen captured near
Colchester in October 1891; for the opportunity of
giving the portrait of this specimen from life, I am indebted
to the courtesy of the Hon. Walter Rothschild.
The bird represented in the other Plate was killed
near Wickham Market in November 1891, stuffed by
Messrs. Pratt, of Brighton, and very kindly lent to me
by its owner, Mr. J. J. Hornby, for the purposes of
this work; this is one of the finest specimens of this
Eagle in the spotted stage of plumage that I have ever
seen, but a third specimen killed at Leigh Court, Essex,
early in November 1891, of which Mr. Thorburn was,
at my request, allowed to make a drawing, is very nearly
as beautiful. I became well acquainted with this species
during my constant shooting expeditions in Epirus and
Albania in 1856, 1857, and 1858. I believe that it
breeds in the former province, as it certainly does, or
did, in Acaruania, but I never found an occupied nest
near the coast.
In the winter months we found this species very
abundantly, in fact it might fairly be called the Eagle of
Epirus, although by no means the only representative of
the genus Aquila therein. The favourite resorts of the
Spotted Eagle are marshy but well wooded plains, and
in my experience almost every clump of high trees on
our favourite shooting-grounds was tenanted by one or
rmnff .*n~
2 A . 7
Litho. W. Greve, Berlin.
SPOTTED EAGLE.
Aquila naevia (J. F. Gmelin).
Drawn from a living specimen captured near Colchester, Oct. 29th. 1893