THE CAFFER EAGLE. 



they usually are among the vultures. It is therefore a species which 

 embarrasses all the systems hitherto proposed, and refuses to rank in 

 the classifications adopted by many of our nomenclators, but which are 

 disavowed by nature. The actual state of natural history so frequently 

 exhibits nature making sport of the rigorously precise rules of our 

 systems, that we ought to be well accustomed to her deviations there- 

 from ; and should infer, that, in proportion as our knowledge is ex- 

 tended and a greater number of species discovered, our systems will 

 appear more and more defective. The present species affords an 

 example, being useful in an arrangement of a natural series, while on 

 the other hand it is of small use in our precise systematic divisions. 



The Caffer eagle is of the size of the royal or great eagle (Aquila 

 aurea), but has the beak strqnger, the claws short and less curved. 

 The folded wings in this species, extend about eight inches beyond 

 the tail, and have their tips worn-like and rubbed, because the bird 

 frequenting rocks, and more frequently alighting on the ground than 

 the eagle, damages them by the friction. The shank is covered with 

 feathers as far as the toes : the tail is rounded, the outer quills being 

 the shortest. 



The whole plumage of the caffer eagle is a dull black, with the 

 exception of some brownish reflections on the small wing coverts, 

 towards the quills of the wing. The eye, which is very large, is 

 placed deeply in the orbit ; and the iris is of a chestnut brown. The 

 beak is bluish at the base, and yellowish through the whole of the bend. 

 The claws are black, and the toes of a tarnished yellow. 



I have only met with this bird on the confines of Caffraria, and 

 even there it is rare. I have seen altogether only five individuals, of 

 which number I only succeeded in killing two, that came to pounce 

 on the remains of a buffalo which I had caused to be scattered about 

 expressly to lure them. On skinning them they exhaled from their 

 body an insupportable odour, a circumstance which proves that they 

 feed principally on carrion. Like the vultures they are obliged to walk 

 some paces before they can raise themselves from the earth ; but they 

 do not congregate in great flocks, for I never saw but two together, 

 apparently male and female. Having only killed two females, I cannot 

 point out the difference between the sexes. I have been able to learn 

 nothing of their habits or their laying, except that the savages assured 

 me that they build in rocks ; that they attack lambs, devour them upon 

 the spot, and never, even when they have young, do they carry their 

 prey in their talons. We know that the eagle carries her prey in this 



