GOLDEN EAGLE. 205 



bird of its genus that occurs in Britain. The disparity be- 

 tween the male and the female is as great as in any species of 

 this family, some individuals of the former measuring only 

 two feet and a half in length, while many of the latter extend 

 to three feet two inches. If not the most celebrated, it is at 

 least the most esteemed of its tribe, and, through the misre- 

 presentations of poets and amateur naturalists, possesses a char- 

 acter for courage and generosity, which a more intimate ac- 

 quaintance with it than such persons usually acquire, soon 

 suffices to dispel. Yet the Eagle is a magnificent bird, and 

 when met with on some grim alpine crag projecting from the 

 grey mist, inspires a kind of respect, of which some degree of 

 fear is an essential ingredient. Even in the menagerie he has 

 a truculent aspect, with those bright but overshadowed eyes, 

 that harmonizes with his wild nature ; and, here, extended 

 dead on the table, as just arrived from the Braes of Lochaber, 

 his broad chest and brawny limbs indicate a power capable 

 of giving effect to those death-dealing talons and expansive 

 wings. 



]\1ale. — The body is robust, compact, ovate, very broad 

 anteriorly ; the neck of moderate length ; the head short, 

 very broad behind, and flattened above. Bill shorter than 

 the head, very deep, compressed toward the end ; the cere 

 large, the edges of the upper mandible with a slight festoon, 

 its tip trigonal and decurved. The legs are rather long, and 

 \^ery muscular ; but the tarsi short, stout, roundish, and 

 feathered to the joint. The toes are covered above with 

 transverse series of roundish scales, padded beneath, with soft 

 conical, generally flattened papillae. On each of the toes are 

 four terminal scutella. The claws are strong, tapering, acu- 

 minate, curved, rounded above, laterally flattened, concave 

 beneath ; the first and second largest, the fourth comparatively 

 very small. 



The upper mandible is concave within, and has a median 

 ridge ; the palate flat, with two longitudinal papillate ridges. 

 The posterior aperture of the nares oblong behind, linear 



