himself, he retires more inland, in search of young pigs, of which he destroys great numbers. In the lower parts of Virginia and North Carolina, where the inhabitants raise vast herds of those animals, complaints of this kind are very general against him. He also destroys young lambs in the early part of spring; and will sometimes attack old sickly sheep, aiming furiously at their eyes.

THIS noble bird, the most magnificent of the eagle tribe, is distinguished from the other eagles, by the shortness of its wings, the extreme robustness of its legs, and the more than ordinary curvature of its beak and talons. Its upper mandible is remarkably thick at the base, from whence it is continued for some distance in a straight line, but suddenly curves downwards, with a strong arch toward the point, which is extremely sharp; the lower mandible is straight, short, and obtuse; the nostrils are transverse and oval; the wings do not reach when closed beyond the middle of the tail, which is rounded at the extremity; the legs are only partially feathered, on the upper part of their anterior surface, the remaining portion being naked and reticulated; and the talons are excessively powerful, the internal and the posterior in particular attaining an almost disproportionable length.

The harpy is so bold, according to Hernandez, that it does not scruple to attack the most ferocious beasts, and even man himself; but this attribute is probably as much exaggerated as its docility, when he adds, that he may be tamed and trained to hawk as readily as the rest of the accipitrine tribe. He states also that it is quarrelsome, sullen, and fierce, and preys not merely upon birds, but upon hares, and other similar animals. Linnæus adds to this account, probably on the report of the keepers of the Spanish Menagerie, that it is capable of splitting a man's skull with a single blow of its beak. Mauduit states that he had been informed by travellers, that it commonly feeds upon the two species of sloth which are found in the forests of Guiana, and carries off in its talons fawns and other young quadrupeds. These details are confirmed by Sonnini, who describes it as living perfectly solitary in the depth and darkness of the thickest forests, where of course it is seldom disturbed by the prying eye of curiosity. He himself observed it perched on a lofty tree, on the banks of the Orassu, where it seemed altogether motionless, and uttered no cry. His shot having only broken his wing, he fastened it by one leg to his boat, in which position it remained for several days, displaying no symptoms of mischievousness, but constantly refusing all kinds of food. This was the specimen called by him aigle destructeur.

These scattered notices comprise all that is known of its history in its natural state. In captivity there is little to distinguish its manners from those of the other birds of its tribe. An individual taken from the nest, in possession of the elder Jacquin, became so tame as to suffer its head to be handled and scratched; but unfortunately this specimen was found dead on its passage to Europe, having fallen a victim, as was supposed, to the vengeance of the sailors, whose monkeys it had destroyed. in their gambols, unconsciously approached too near its seized by its powerful talons; it devoured them with almost all their bones, but not without skinning them, an operation which it uniformly performed previously to consigning them to its maw.

These animals, cage, and were

THE CHILIAN SEA EAGLE.1

THE beautiful species which we are about to describe, measures about two feet in length, from the point of the beak to the extremity of the tail, and from four to five in the expanse of its wings. No other individual, except that which is now in the Zoological Society's Collection, has, we believe, ever been in Europe; and even in cabinets, the stuffed skin appears to be of considerable rarity. It was first made known to science by M. D'Azara, to whom we are indebted for the earliest descriptions of so many South

1 Haliatus aguia, TEMM.

American animals, as well as for the most authentic details with respect to their native habits. In the present instance he has unfortunately given us no such particulars; and as no other zoologist has seen the living bird in a state of nature, we can but judge from analogy that its manners are the same with those of the best known species of its genus. A figure taken from a preserved specimen, has been lately published by M. Temminck, in his splendid Planches Coloriées; and the description which accompanies it, is the only original notice of the bird subsequent to that of M. D'Azara.

The latter author, or rather his French translator, names it l'aigle noirâtre et blanc. He states, that it is found, but not frequently, in Paraguay, and that it is generally seen in pairs. The feathers of the head, neck, and upper part of the body, are, according to his description, of a blackish blue, and, with the exception of those of the back, terminated by dirty white. The tail is blackish, with small whitish spots scattered over its surface the upper wing-coverts ash colored, with blackish stems and transverse lines of the same; and the large coverts, as well as the quill-feathers, of a deeper ash, variegated with narrow black bands. The whole under surface is beautifully white, with transverse blackish lines on the under tail-coverts, and larger wing-coverts alone; the smaller wing-coverts having no other part but their stems of this sombre tinge. The naked part of the leg is of a light yellow, with large flat scales both before and behind; the cere is pale yellow; the beak black at its point, and blue at the base; and the iris of a very light hazel.

THE shape of the tail of this bird is peculiar to the continent of New Holland, to which country the wedge-tailed eagle appears exclusively to belong. Its general color is of a deep dusky brown or dull black. It is said to prey upon the emeus, and other large birds, and also on the young kanguroos. There is a living individual now in the possession of the Zoological Society, the only one that has been brought to Europe.

THE BRAZILIAN CARACARA EAGLE,2

So named from its hoarse and peculiar cry, is of a blackish brown color, with a light brownish gray neck, and the top of the head black. According to D'Azara, the full grown bird is twenty-one and a half inches in length,

Falco fuscosus, Cuv.

2 Falco Braziliensis, GMEL.

and fifty in the expanse of the wings. Its range extends over a great part of South America, from Venezuela to Paraguay. It builds generally on the

THIS bird is somewhat longer than the buzzard, but more slender and beautiful, and is one foot ten inches in length. Its bill is blue, tipped with black; the cere green; the eyes yellow; over each eye there is a whitish line; the head and all the upper parts of the body are of a deep brown color; and each side of the neck is irregularly marked with white; the breast and