FAMILY ACCIPITRroAE 249 



HARPIA HARPYJA (Linnaeus): Harpy Eagle; Harpla 

 Vultiir harpyja Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol, 1, 1758, p. 86. (Mexico.) 



The largest and most powerful of the eagles; general form and 

 appearance like that of Morphnus guianensis, but much greater 

 in size; head with a prominent, double-pointed crest; tail long; 

 wings relatively short and rounded ; feet very strong and powerful. 



Description. — Length, 950 mm. to more than a meter. Adult, 

 head all around, including throat, smoke gray; bushy crest darker, 

 blacker, with elongated central feathers that often are erected in a 

 double point; upper surface black, with a wash of bluish gray; 

 rump and upper tail coverts narrowly tipped with white; wing 

 coverts and scapulars tipped with white or pale gray ; outer primaries 

 black; inner primaries and secondaries mottled with gray and dull 

 black ; tail with 4 black bands, separated by 3 that are grayish white, 

 and tipped with white ; upper breast black ; rest of under surface 

 (except for the gray throat) white, with sides streaked, and tibia 

 barred, with black ; under wing coverts white, with large, irregular 

 spots of black; bases of flight feathers pale gray; tips dull black, 

 barred with white; under surface of tail grayish white, barred nar- 

 rowly with black. 



Immature, head, neck, and under surface white; crest black 

 mottled with gray, and tipped with white ; above mottled gray and 

 black; tibia lightly barred. The weight of a living male in the New 

 York Zoological Society collection is given as 4.6 kilograms (Conway, 

 Auk, 1962, p. 275). A male collected March 8, 1963, near Armila, 

 San Bias weighed 4.53 kilos. Fowler and Cope (Auk. 1964, p. 209) 

 record the weight of living birds in a male as 4.8 kilos and in two 

 females as about 7.6 kilos. 



The iris in the male last mentioned was orange; cere and bill 

 black ; tarsus and toes yellow ; claws black. 



Measurements (from Friedmann, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 50, pt. 

 10, 1950, p. 434).— Males, wing 543-580 (556.5), tail 372-412 (392), 

 culmen from cere 41.5-54 (48.3), tarsus 114-120 (115.8) mm. 



Females, wing 583-610 (587.6), tail 417-420 (418), culmen from 

 cere 46-63 (53), tarsus 118-130 (123) mm. 



Resident. Rare, in areas of heavy forest. 



This great eagle, usually acknowledged as the most powerful 

 of its group in the entire world, ranges through the forested lowlands 

 of tropical America from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. 

 A hundred years ago it was fairly common in Panama, as McLean- 

 nan, station master on the Panama Railroad, on the Atlantic side, 



