GOLDEN EAGLE. 209 



M. 



Tongue in length.... I5 



CEsophagus 13 



Crop in width 3^ 



Stomach 2^ 



Intestine 50 



Length of duodenum — 



Greatest width j'% 



Least width y| 



Coeca in length /^ 



Rectum — 



Cloaca in diameter... 2 



Changes of Plumage. — The moult appears to commence ahout 

 the middle of spring and to be completed in December ; but 

 I have never examined an Eagle at any season without finding 

 new feathers. ^Vhen old the feathers are generally ragged, irre- 

 gularly pointed, and of a light greyish-brown colour ; when new 

 of a rich brown glossed with purple, many of them brownish- 

 black. The wing-coverts seem to be the feathers last renewed. 



Habits. — The Golden Eagle is not seen to advantage in the 

 menagerie of a zoological society, nor when fettered on the 

 smooth lawn of an aristocratic mansion, or perched on the rock- 

 work of a nursery-garden ; nor can his habits be well described 

 by a cockney ornithologist, whose proper province is to concoct 

 systems, " Work out" analogies, and give names to .skins that 

 have come from foreign lands carefully packed in boxes lined 

 with tin. Far away, among the brown hills of Albyn, is thy 

 dwelling-place, chief of the rocky glen ! On the crumbling 

 crag of red granite that towers over the fissured precipices of 

 Loch-na-gar thou hast reposed in safety. The croak of the 

 Raven has broken thy slumbers, and thou gatherest up thy huge 

 wings, smoothest the feathers on thy sides, and preparest to 

 launch into the aerial ocean. Bird of the desert, solitary though 

 thou art, and hateful to the sight of many of thy fellow crea- 

 tures, thine must be a happy life. No lord hast thou to bend 

 thy stubborn soul to his will, no cares corrode thy heart, sel- 



VOL. III. p 



