Identifier: royalnaturalhist47lyde (find matches)
Title: The royal natural history
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Lydekker, Richard, 1849-1915 Sclater, Philip Lutley, 1829-1913 Frostick, W. B., former owner. DSI Brooks, W. T., former owner. DSI
Subjects: Zoology Natural history
Publisher: London and New York : Frederick Warne & Co.
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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lly more large scales onthe upper surface of the toes than in the latter. The most sure way of distinguish-ing between the two genera, according to Dr. Sharpe, is by comparing the lengthof the fourth toe, measured from the coumiencement of the metatarsal feathers,and exclusive of the claw, with the circumference of the beak in front of thecere; when it will be found that whereas in the hawk-eagles the two diametersare equal, in the true eagles the former is less than the latter. The range of the 2 20 DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY. hawk-eagles includes Africa, the north coast of the Mediterranean, India, Ceylon,and Australia. Among the small number of species constituting this genus,the best known is Bonellis hawk - eagle (Nisaetus fasciatus), which is atthe same time one of the largest, the female measuring 26 inches in length, andthus being somewhat more than two-thirds the size of the golden eagle. In generalcolour the adult bird (shown in the lower figure of our illustration) is dark brown
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v\^^^ ■^^ii above, with some wdiite about the head and in the region of the neck; the quillsare deep brown, with white mottlings on their inner webs; and the tail is ashy-brown, with a broad terminal band of dark brown, and several incomplete bars ofthe same tint higher up. The axillaries are white, streaked with black; and theunder-parts are white, with dark shaft-stripes of variable breadth to the feathers,passing on the flanks into arrow-head-like markings. The beak is black, with alighter base; the iris yellow, the cere dull yellow, and the foot whitish yellow.In the young bird, as shown in the upper figure of our engraving, the general HA WK-EA GLES. 2 21 colour of the upper-parts is brown, and that of the head, neck, and under-partsfawn, with distinct black shaft-stripes to all the feathers. The range of this fineeagle includes the regions lying on both sides of the Mediterranean, from whenceit extends eastwards through Palestine and Syria to Arabia. In India, where it isterme

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