THE I'MPIRE OF THE ATK. 425 



was a cuiioiis hiid: it was l»i()U<;lir IVoni the Slioa coiuitry by the ex- 

 ploHT AiiKtiis: but what could I (1<» with a buudh'of piiuiaiy feathers 

 and a tew hirge secou(biries ' L couhl only say, alter exaiuiiiiug- them 

 that it these were featlu^rs of the griffon, that bird attains an extraor- 

 dinary size in that region, for the longest feather was at least as large 

 as that of the condor and was -9h inches long. It may have belonged 

 to a great unknown vulture of Central Africa, the existence of which 

 I suspect from the accounts of Abyssiuians. If so, it must be u])on the 

 old continent the analogue of the harpy of the Amazon River. 



I was in possession for many years of the most beautiful eagle which 

 I have ever seen : neither Paris nor Geneva possessed, to my knowl- 

 edge, anything its equal in figure and beauty. Vet I can furnish no 

 accurate data of eagle measurements. 1 have killed over a dozen, and 

 I can not ])resent on«' of tiieni to the reader. However, as tlie proverb 

 goes, we can not give wliat we have not got: so 1 give the best infor- 

 mation 1 liaA'c. 



All the birds 1 ]>resent w<'re weighed when IVesh killed. As to their 

 surface, this is the way I pioceed: I sjtread out the bird, back down 

 ward, upon ;i large sheet of pa])er, the wings being stretched out into 

 the attitude of theii- flight when there is no wind; this being set down 

 in the tables as •• wind. ])er second." Sometimes, when tlie wing 

 hapix'iied to be stifl" and could ]iot be fully extemled, the attitude 

 resembled that which the bird assumes when there is alight breeze; in 

 such cases it is marked (ui tlie table as "wind. ."> meters per second''' 

 (11 miles per hour). Finally, some measurements have been nuide with 

 the birds' wings adjusted as when they sail on a good wind. In such 

 cases they are headed, ••v.ind. 10 meters ]>er secon<l " fl'L* miles per 

 hour). 



Once laid down on its back, well adjusted in ])roi)er attitiule of sail- 

 ing llight, the bird is made inunovable b>' weights, these being plates 

 of lead to fiatteu down ttnruly feathers, and two or three large masses 

 of lead to hold the wings in ])osition ami to counteract the contraction 

 of the muscles; then with a pencil it is easy to trace a precise silhou- 

 ette. We thus get the total project<'d surface of the bird — wings, tail, 

 body, head and feet, ^'ow, if we only measure the snrface of the 

 wings, we would err; for when under way, all i)arts serve to suppor, 

 weight, all goes to form an ai''r()j)lane, being more oy less effecti\e. ac. 

 cording to its shai)e. Assuredly, we might neglect the feet of the 

 waders, as being nothing but an imitediment which the creature trails 

 beliind, but as to the l»ody, there (-an be n() thought of ignoring it, for 

 it dei'ives mneh sui)[»ort from the air. 



We may now say, simply, that this gi\-es us the surface of the siiadow 

 of the l»ird. 



in calenlating these surfaces we must proceed with ])atience, many 

 figures, and much older. Ther(^ are a dozen triangles to com])ute and 

 four oi' live i)arallelogiams. This is ^•ery tedious work. We ])luck up 



