very early in spring and–as in other Birds of Prey–not always on successive days. The Golden Eagle is distinguished from the Sea-Eagle (p. 163) by the feathering reaching to the toes, which have only the last joint scutellated, and the remainder reticulated: the adult is normally blackish-brown, with tawny lanceolate nape-plumes and tail mottled with grey; the young have white bases to the rectrices. The colour, however, varies much. _Aquila clanga_, the Spotted Eagle of British lists, and its smaller form, _A. pomarina_, range across Europe, except the most northern portions, and extend to North Africa, India, and North China, their respective distributions being somewhat uncertain. The colour is brown, with pale nape and light margins to the feathers of the wings and rump; the manners are those of Eagles generally, but the food includes frogs, reptiles, and grasshoppers, in addition to small mammals and birds. _A. hastata_ of India is hardly separable, and the African _A. wahlbergi_ is very similar, as is the larger _A. nipalensis_, the Steppe Eagle of the former country, Eastern Europe, Eastern Asia, and, exceptionally, North Africa, a plain brown bird with a fulvous nuchal patch. It commonly builds its nest {163}upon the ground. _A. adalberti_, the White-shouldered Eagle of Portugal, Spain, and North-West Africa–often wrongly called "Imperial,"–preys upon lizards, snakes, hares and rabbits, which it usually spies from a perch on some bare tree-top. It is black, with brownish neck, greyish base to the tail, and a broad white shoulder-patch, whereas _A. mogilnik_, the true Imperial Eagle, ranging from Central Europe and North-East Africa to India and China, differs in having the head and neck creamy yellow, and only the scapulars white. _A. rapax_ (_naevioïdes_), the Tawny Eagle of most of Africa, rarely found in Europe, is remarkable for the parti-coloured feathers of purplish-brown and rufous on the upper parts; otherwise it is brown, slightly streaked with fulvous below. The smaller _A. vindhiana_ and _A. fulvescens_ of India are very like it, while _A. verreauxi_ of Abyssinia and South Africa is jet black with white rump and lower back. _Uroaëtus audax_ of Australia and Tasmania is black, and has a wedge-shaped tail, the bright chestnut nape being streaked with black, and the head with white.