EAGLES. 289 



with six imperfect bands of black, with which color the interspaces also are plenti- 

 fully mottled. The immature bird is very different --one of the characteristic phases 

 being almost white below, with a broad band of glossy black feathers across the chest, 

 the tail with five black bands and a white tip. 



According to the writer above quoted, the food of the harpy in southern Mexico 

 is very varied, for he " attacks and kills heavy old turkey-cocks, young fawns, sloths, 

 full-grown foxes and badgers, middle-sized pigs, and even the black sapajou monkey 

 (Ateles paniscus}, whose size and weight exceed its own more than three times. He 

 shows a great latitude of taste, and seems to devour with equal relish a fat iguana 

 lizard, a young woodcock, or a tough old monkey. He can catch fish, too ; does not 

 disdain the black water-snakes that glide through the shallow ponds of the coast jun- 

 gles, and even anticipates the trick of the tortoise-hunters, that uncover the oily eggs 

 which the caret turtle has covered with the sand of the shallow river banks. 



" But during the larger part of the year he seeks his quarry on the trees of his 

 native woods, and causes more distress and dire commotion among the tribes of the 



' *U 



gallinaceous tree-birds, raccoons, frugivorous rodents, and monkeys than all their other 

 enemies taken together. His tyranny over the kingdom of the air tolerates no rival ; 

 the falcons and the Aquila chrysaetos have to confine themselves to the icy rocks of 

 the upper Sierra, the Strix bubo and other owls are bound under heavy penalties to 

 keep the peace during daylight, and the sea-eagle is pursued for miles with implaca- 

 ble fury whenever he ventures to trespass upon the rivers of the tierra caliente." Of 

 the breeding habits of this remarkable bird our author gives the following account : 



o o o 



" As soon as the lengthening days of the year approach the vernal equinox, the hen 

 harpy begins to collect dry sticks and moss, or perhaps only lichens, with a few claws' 

 full of the feathery bast of the Arauca palm, if her last year's eyrie has been left undis- 

 turbed. Her favorite roosting-places, the highest forest trees, especially the Adan- 

 sonia and the Pimis balsamifera, and the more inaccessible rocks of the foot-hills, 

 are commonly also chosen for a breeding-place ; and it is not easy to distinguish her 

 compact-built eyrie on the highest branches of a wild fig-tree from the dark-colored 

 clusters of the Mexican mistletoe ( Viscum rubrum), which frequents the same tree- 

 tops. The eggs are white, with yellowish-brown dots and washes, and about as long, 

 though not quite as heavy, as a hen's egg. Of these eggs the harpy lays four or five, 

 but never hatches more than two ; or, if the Indians can be believed, feeds the first 

 two eaglets that make their appearance with the contents of the remaining eggs. The 

 process of incubation is generally finished by the middle of March, if not sooner ; 

 and from that time to the end of June the rapacity of the old birds is the terror of 

 the tropical fauna, for their hunting expeditions, which later in the year are restricted 

 to the early morning hours, now occupy them for the larger part of the day. From 

 the garden-terrace of El Pinal, a little villa on the ridge of the Organos moun- 

 tains, I frequently watched a pair of harpies that had their nest in the crags below. 

 The hen bird, which could be recognized by her larger size and the greater energy of 

 her movements, generally made her appearance a few minutes before sunrise, mount- 

 ed to the upper sky, as if to study the meteorological probabilities for the coming day, 

 and then proceeded to business. After wheeling at an elevation of some hundred 

 feet over the tree-tops in a circle, or rather in a contracting spiral, for a couple of 

 minutes, she commonly would stop short, hover with quivering wings for a second 

 or two, and then dive into the leafy ocean below, with a headlong rapidity that could 

 hardly be followed by the eye, but evidently with a practical purpose, for her descents 

 VOL. iv. 19 



