VULTURIDvE. 



the other is gregarious. It abounds iii Africa, where it is 

 protected on account of its utility in co^isuming carrion 

 and garbage ; it is common also in Spain, and is occasionally 

 met with in other moimtainous parts of Europe, 



THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



a'quila chrysaetos. 



Tail longer than the wings, rounded ; plumage of the head, back of the neck and 

 legs, lustrous reddish brown, of the rest of the body dark brown ; primaries 

 nearly black ; secondaries brownish black ; tail dark grey, barred and tipped 

 with brownish black ; beak bluish at the base, black at the extremity ; iris 

 brown ; cere and feet yellow ; claws bluish black. Length of the male three 

 feet, that of the female more ; breadth eight feet. Eggs dirty white, mottled 

 with pale reddish brown. 



A VERY short study of the feathered race brings us to the 

 conclusion that it contains as many shades of character as 

 the human ; the weak, the strong ; the shy, the forward ; 

 the industrious, the idle ; the merry, the morose ; the gentle 

 and the ferocious. To the latter class belongs Avithout 

 doubt the subject of the present memoir. Strong and 

 rapid in flight, high soaring so as to look down on all 

 other inhabitants of earth and air, and making its nest on 

 some inaccessible rock, it has been chosen as the symbol 

 of divinity and power. Persia, Eome, and Imperial 

 France have adopted it in turn, while the Austrian and 

 Russian Empires, to denote perhaps the extent of their 

 respective dominions eastward and west^vard, outrage na- 

 ture by representing it furnished with two heads. In 

 Greek and Eoman mythology the Eagle figured in the court 

 of the supreme god,. Jupiter, holding the thunderbolts of his 

 master, and descending, when ordered, to be the messenger 

 of his wrath. In the hieroglyphics of the Christian 

 Church, the Eagle represents the evangehst St. John. 

 "Like an Eagle," says the early Christian writer St, Jerome, 

 " he ascends to the very throne of God," and says, " In 



