The whole upper surface of the head is black, with the feathers slightly elongated backwards, and capable of being partially elevated in the shape of a pointed crest. The entire neck is of a light brownish-gray, which also forms the ground colour on the breast and shoulders, but with the addition on these parts of numerous transverse wavy bars of a deeper brown. Nearly all the rest of the plumage is of a tolerably uniform shade of blackish-brown, with the exception of the tail, which is, at the base, of a dirty white, with numerous narrow, transverse, undulated bands of a dusky hue, and, in its terminal third black, without any appearance of banding. The beak is horn-coloured at the tip, and blueish at the base; the iris hazel; the cere and naked cheeks of a dull red; the legs yellow, and the claws black. Changes, however, occur in the plumage as the bird advances in age; and there is a very remarkable diversity of colour in this species.

that

This fine bird ranges over a considerable part of South America. It builds its nest upon the tops of trees, and prefers those which have the greater number of climbing shrubs about them. Where such are not to be found, it selects a bushy thicket, in which it forms a spacious eyrie of sticks and twining branches, laid nearly flat, and lined with a thick layer of hair inartificially disposed. The female lays two eggs, much pointed at one extremity, and dotted and spotted with crimson on a ground of brownish-red. The Caracara devours the dead and the living. Sometimes four or five unite to pursue a prey a single one could not master. D'Azara states that he has seen them hunt down red buzzards, herons, and other large birds; and it seems they prey, not only on a variety of smaller creatures, but also on young fawns and lambs. Often do they feast, too, on what others have taken. Thus, if a caracara sees a vulture devour a piece of flesh, it will pursue him, and compel him to disgorge it; and the sportsman is not unfrequently foiled by this bird coming and bearing off the game before his eyes.

In the Second Family of Raptorial Birds, zoologists consider the destructive energy to be most perfectly developed. Here natural instruments are found for striking, trussing, and dissecting their prey, combined with a great power of flight and strength of limbs, adapted to triumph over the prey, whether it be aerial-struck in its flight, or whether it be terrestrial-captured on the ground.

It is not improbable that similar habits of solitude in the lion and the eagle, together with their magnitude and strength, have given rise to their titles, so generally current, of king of beasts-king of birds. Jonston says, in an old work, "Englished by a Person of Quality: "—"The eagle challengeth the first place, not that it is the best dish at table, for none will eat it, but because it is the king of birds." The ancient Greeks were of the same opinion, for Pindar speaks of "the great eagle, the chief magistrate of the birds." This great eagle, or imperial eagle, was sometimes confounded with other species, but it is of a larger, stronger, and more noble description than any other variety. Josephus says, the eagle was selected for the Roman legionary standard, because "he is the king of all the birds, and the most powerful of them all, whence he has become the emblem of empire and the omen of victory." An eagle, in ancient mythology, was alone thought worthy to bear the thunder of Jupiter. The plume of this noble bird is chosen by the young Indian warrior as his highest ornament; and, without it, even the garb of the Highland chieftain is considered incomplete.

Dignity and majesty are the common attributes of the eagle. Hence Mrs. Hemans, addressing one of these birds who has been fatally wounded, thus speaks :—

"Eagle! this is not thy sphere!
Warrior-bird, what seek'st thou here?

Wherefore by the fountain's brink
Doth thy royal pinion sink?

Wherefore on the violet's bed

Lay'st thou thus thy drooping head?
Thou, that hold'st the blast in scorn,
Thou, that wear'st the wings of morn!

"Eagle! wilt thou not arise?

Look upon thine own bright skies!
Lift thy glance! the fiery sun
There his pride of place has won,
And the mountain lark is there,

And sweet sound hath fill'd the air;
Hast thou left that realm on high?—
Oh, it can be but to die!

"Eagle! Eagle! thou hast bowel
From thine empire o'er the cloud!
Thou that hadst ethereal birth,
Thou hast stoop'd too near the earth,

And the hunter's shaft hath found thee,
And the toils of Death have bound thee-
Wherefore didst thou leave thy place,
Creature of a kingly race?

"Wert thou weary of thy throne?

Was the sky's dominion lone?

Chill and lone it well might be,

Yet that mighty wing was free!

Now the chain is o'er thee cast:

From thy heart the blood flows fast

Woe for gifted souls and high!

Is not such their destiny?"

* Falconida: Leach.

The vulture, on the other hand, instead of being regarded as a symbol of "high and gifted" spirits, is only taken as the type of degraded and ferocious humanity. If the one is lauded for an imperial bravery and generosity, the other is branded as base, cowardly, and obscene. Here, however, is a manifest injustice. Eagles, adapted to seize and carry off their living prey, are useful in checking the increase of the smaller kinds of quadrupeds and birds, which would otherwise become too numerous ; while vultures, not organised for this task, are no less usefully employed in removing the carrion, whose exhalations would occasion disease and death. Each class exercises its peculiar instincts, for which an express provision is made in its structure, and confers important benefits on man: one should not, therefore, be exalted at the expense of the other; and, whenever it is, another instance appears of the prejudice by which utility is valued chiefly on account of its gaudy accessories.

The eagle, like the falcon and the hawk, refuses, unless compelled by necessity, to taste other food than that they themselves have procured; they rend the quivering fibres of their expiring victim, and drink the blood warm from its gushing veins. The eye of the eagle glares defiance and a dauntless daring: the beak is deep, strong, and curved, the point bending into a short and formidable hook; the legs, short and robust, are covered with rough, hard scales; the toes, too, are also thus protected; but, above all, they are armed with enormous hooked and sharp-pointed talons. It is these that the eagle plunges deep into the agonised body of his prey as he proceeds to lacerate it with his beak, and it is in their grasp that he bears off the fawn, the lamb, or the wild fowl, to his lonely eyrie; for it is seldom that the eagle-and it is so with the falcon and the hawk-attempts to satiate his hunger on the spot, unless the animal is too heavy to be carried away. We have a fine specimen in the imperial eagle (p. 33).

The Abbé Spallanzani had a common, or black eagle, which was so powerful, that it could easily kill dogs much larger than itself. When a dog was cruelly forced into the room where the eagle was kept, it immediately ruffled the feathers on its head and neck, taking a short flight, alighted on the back of its victim, held the neck firmly with one foot, so that there could be no turning of the head to bite, while one of the flanks was grasped with the other, and in this attitude the eagle continued, till the dog, with fruitless cries and struggles, expired. The beak, hitherto unemployed, was now used to make a small hole in the skin this was gradually enlarged, and from it the eagle tore away and devoured the flesh. This bird never ate any skin or intestine, and rarely bone.

The

Thus ferocious and violently impetuous in attacking animals, it never molested man. Abbé, who constantly fed it, could safely enter the apartment where the eagle was kept, and witness such assaults without any personal apprehension; nor did it discover the slightest shyness while he remained. In general, when it had flesh at will, it made only one meal a-day. The Abbé found, by weighing what it ate, that thirty ounces of flesh were amply sufficient, one day with another..

M. Ebel relates that a young hunter in Switzerland, having discovered an eagle's nest, killed the male, and was descending the rocks to destroy what remained, when, at the moment he was putting his hand into the cleft to take the nest away, the mother, indignantly pouncing upon him, fixed her talons in his arm, and her beak in his side. With great presence of mind, the hunter stood still; had he moved, he would have fallen to the bottom of the precipice; but now, holding his gun in one hand, and supporting it against the rock, he took his aim, pulled the trigger with his foot, and shot the eagle dead. The wounds he had received confined him to his bed, however, for six weeks. A somewhat similar story is related of the children of a Scottish peasant, who were surprised, in their endeavour to take away some young eaglets from the nest, by the return of the mother, from whose indignation they had great difficulty in escaping.

A peasant, with his wife and three children, took up his summer quarters in a châlet, and pastured his flock on one of the rich Alps that overlook the Dranse. The eldest boy was an idiot, about eight years of age; the second, five years old, but dumb; and the third, an infant. One morning the idiot was left in charge of his brothers, and the three had wandered to some distance from the châlet before they were missed; and, when the mother found the two elder, she could discover no trace of the babe.

A strange contrast was presented by the two children: the idiot seemed transported with joy, while his dumb brother was filled with consternation. In vain did the terrified parent attempt to

gather from either what had become of the infant. But, as the idiot danced about in great glee, laughed immoderately, and imitated the action of one who had caught up something of which he was fond, and hugged it to his breast, the poor woman was slightly comforted, supposing that some acquaintance had fallen in with the children, and taken away the babe.

But the day and the succeeding night passed without any tidings of the lost one. On the morrow the parents were earnestly pursuing their search, when, as an eagle flew over their heads, the idiot renewed his gesticulations, and the dumb boy clung to his father with frantic shrieks. Now the dreadful thought broke upon their minds that the infant had been carried off by a bird of prey, and that his half-witted brother was delighted at his riddance of an object which had excited his jealousy. Meanwhile, an Alpine hunter had been watching near an eyrie, hoping to shoot the mother-bird, on returning to her nest. At length, waiting with the anxious perseverance of such determined sportsmen, he saw her slowly winging her way towards the rock, behind which he had taken refuge, when, on her nearer approach, he heard, to his horror, the cries of an infant, and then beheld it in her frightful grasp. Instantly his resolve was made, to fire at the eagle the moment she should alight on the nest, and rather to kill the child than leave it to be devoured. With a silent prayer, arising from his heart of hearts, he poised, directed, and discharged his rifle; the ball went through the head or breast of the eagle; with indescribable delight he bore the babe away; and, within four-and-twenty hours after it was missed, he had the satisfaction of restoring it—with wounds which were not serious, on one of its arms and sides—to its transported mother's bosom.

Other instances are recorded of children being seized and carried off by eagles to their young. In the year 1737, in the parish of Norderhougs, in Norway, a boy, somewhat more than two years old, was running from the house to his parents, who were at work in the fields not far off, when an eagle pounced upon him, and flew off with him in their sight, while all their screams and efforts were in vain. Anderson says, in his "History of Iceland," that, in that island, children of four or five years old have been taken away by eagles; and Ray relates, that, in one of the Orkneys, a child was seized in the talons of an eagle, and borne above four miles to its nest. The mother, knowing the eyrie, went thither, clomb up the mountain, discovered her child, and took it away unarmed.

Sir Robert Sibbald, in his account of the Orkneys, gives, among other instances, the following:An eagle seized a child a year old, which its mother had left, wrapped up in some clothes, at a place called Houton-Head, while she went for a few moments to gather sticks for firewood, and carried it a distance of four miles to Hoia; which circumstance being known from the cries of the mother, four men went there in a boat, and, knowing where the nest was, found the child unhurt. This story seems to have furnished the groundwork of the affecting tale in "Blackwood's Magazine" of "Hannah Lamont's Bairn."

THE GOLDEN EAGLE.*

A POET has truly said—

"The tawny eagle seats his callow brood
High on the cliff, and feasts his young with blood;
On Snowdon's rocks, or Orkney's wide domain,
Whose beetling cliffs o'erhang the western main,
The royal bird his lonely kingdom forms
Amidst the gathering clouds and sullen storms;
Through the wide waste of air he darts his sight,
And holds his sounding pinions poised for flight;

With cruel eye premeditates the war,
And marks his destined victim from afar:
Descending in a whirlwind to the ground,
His pinions like the rush of waters sound;
The fairest of the fold he bears away,
And to his nest compels the struggling prey;
He scorns the game by meaner hunters tore,
And dips his talons in no vulgar gore."

In England and the south of Scotland the Golden Eagle may be accounted rare, very few of their districts being adapted to its disposition, or to the rearing of its young. Some parts of Derbyshire, the mountainous parts of Wales, and the precipices of Cumberland and Westmoreland, are said to have once boasted of eyries. Upon the wild ranges of the Scottish Border one or two pairs used to breed, but their nest has not been known for many years, though a straggler, in winter, may sometimes be seen amidst their defiles. It is not till the Highlands of Scotland are really entered by one of their grand and romantic passes, that this majestic bird can be said really to occur; and it is not till the very centre of their wildness is reached that it can be frequently seen. But the species must be * Aquila chrysaetos.

gradually, though surely, decreasing; for such have been its ravages among the flocks during the season of lambing-the time when a large supply of food is required by the parent birds for their young-that every device has been employed, and expense incurred by rewards, for their destruction. From March, 1831, to March, 1834, in the county of Sutherland alone, one hundred and seventy-one old birds, with fifty-three young and eggs, were destroyed, showing that the eagle is not of the extreme rarity that is sometimes supposed; and also, that, if the war of extermination be continued, the northern landscape will soon lose this appropriate ornament.

Its loss from the Highland districts is thus lamented by a naturalist :-"How picturesque the eagle looks, and how perfectly he represents the genius loci, as, perched on some rocky point or withered tree, he sits unconcerned in wind and storm, motionless and statue-like, with his keen, stern eye, however, intently following every movement of the shepherd or of the sportsman, who, deceived by his apparent disregard, attempts to creep within rifle-shot! Long before he can reckon on reaching so far with his bullet, the bird launches himself into the air, and, gradually sweeping upwards, wheels high out of shot, leaving his enemy disappointed and vexed at having crept in vain through bog and over rock in expectation of carrying home so glorious a trophy of his skill. When intent on his game, the eagle frequently will venture within a short distance of the grouse-shooter or deer-stalker. I have seen him pounce (no, that is not the proper word, for he rather rushes) down on a pack of grouse, and, with outspread wings, he so puzzles and confuses the birds, that he seizes and carries off two or three before they know what has happened, and in the very face of the astonished sportsman and his dogs. The mountain hare, too, is carried off by the eagle with as much apparent ease as the mouse is borne away by the kestrel."

In Ireland, the golden eagle is generally distributed where the situations are favourable; but, at the same time, it is much more rare than the sea eagle. The Horn Head, the mountain of Rosheen, near Dunfanaghy, Achill Island, and Crowpatrie are mentioned by Mr. Thompson as recently or formerly having eyries on their precipices; but from Rosheen they have been driven off, from the destruction done to the flocks. The nest, placed on a ledge perfectly inaccessible, was set on fire by burning a lighted brand, and was consumed with its tenants. The parents afterwards forsook a station where they had been attacked in so unusual a manner.

The distribution of this species extends over the northern parts of Europe, but towards the south the golden eagle becomes less frequent. It also inhabits North America, but appears to be there generally rare; although, according to Audubon, an excellent authority, it is frequently seen in the United States. In the fur countries it again becomes scarce; and the naturalist just mentioned saw a single specimen only on the coast of Labrador, "sailing at the height of a few yards above the moss-covered surface of the dreary rocks."

In a wild state, the plumage attains its maturity nearly by the third year, though the colours of the base of the tail darken considerably after that period. In confinement, it often does not take place fully until the fourth or fifth year; and a female which was kept from the nest for six years had the base of the tail feathers, in the intervals between the dark bars, remarkably pure.

The colours of the adult birds are generally a deep and rich umber brown, glossed with purple on the back and wings; on the hind head and back of the neck, the feathers are of a hackled, or lanceolate, form, pale orange brown, occasionally edged with a paler tint; and, when shone upon by the sun, or a strong light, have a brilliant, and almost golden appearance, whence the name of these birds is derived. The fronts of the thighs, shoulders, and tarsi are of the same pale orange-brown colour. The quills are blackish brown, nearly black, white towards the base on the inner webs, and clouded with grayish black. The secondaries are clouded with hair brown, brocoli brown, and umber brown. The tail, with the exception of the centre feathers, is nearly square; these are narrowed toward the point, and exceed the others in length-a form which prevails considerably in the true eagles, and is greatly developed in the New Holland wedge-tailed eagle.

The colour of the tail is grayish brown, palest, and almost approaching to white, on the base of the inner webs; only the whole appears very dark, from the crowded arrangement of the dark markings; these are of very deep umber, or blackish brown, disposed in bars across, and irregular clouding in the intervals. In the young birds, the terminal band is always present; but the base of the whole tail is pure white, which is gradually obliterated by the occurrence of additional bars and