450 AVES— EAGLE. 



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. Linnaeus 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 motion- 

 less, 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, 

 m 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. These animals, 

 in their gambols, unconsciously approached too near its cage, and were 

 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. 



THE CHILIAN SEA EAGLE.* 



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 Halicctus aguia, Temm. 



