158 ALLEN'S naturalist's LIBRARY. 



It breeds still more sparingly in Western Donegal, and prob- 

 ably in Western Gahvay and Kerry, but it has ceased to breed, 

 as formerly, in Antrim, Tyrone, Down, Tipperary, Waterford, 

 Leitrim, and Sligo, but visits the mountainous parts of these 

 counties occasionally." 



Range outside the British Islands. — The Golden Eagle is found 

 throughout the mountains of Europe and Northern Africa, and 

 extends to the extreme east of Asia, as far as Kamtchatka and 

 the Japanese Islands. It also breeds in the Himalayas. Many 

 races or sub-species have been recognised, chiefly by the late 

 Dr. Severtzov and the Russian naturalists, but I have never 

 been able to recognise more than one species of Golden Eagle, 

 though in some localities the birds are larger and darker than 

 in others, but the supposed differences in the amount of white 

 on the tail- and body-feathers are dependent, I am certain, solely 

 on the age of the individuals, and are never specific. 



In North America the Golden Eagle is found in the moun- 

 tainous regions of the northern parts, but has not yet been 

 noticed in Greenland. 



Habits. — Owing to the destruction which this large Eagle is 

 capable of committing on sheep-farms, the bird has been shot 

 and trapped almost to extinction in the British Islands. The 

 principal food of the Golden Eagle in Scotland is the Blue 

 or Mountain Hare, and it also captures rabbits or an occa- 

 sional Grouse, while it is well known that it will devour carrion, 

 which propensity often leads to its being taken in traps. The 

 flight of a Golden Eagle is certainly a wonderful sight to see, 

 according to all observers, and I have seen nothing finer than 

 the flight of the Eagles in the Himalayas (probably Imperial 

 Eagles), soaring round and round, high in the air, without any 

 apparent motion of the wings, the ends of which are slightly 

 upturned in soaring, so that daylight can be seen between the 

 tips of the long primaries. Then follow a few rapid beats of 

 the wings, and then another round of circular movements, 

 until the bird winds itself out of sight or tops the mountain 

 crest into the next valley. Sometimes the bird will sit motion- 

 less on a rock or favourite perch for hours, but it is when 

 the Golden Eagle is on the wing, that we can understand 

 why its majestic movements inspired the idea that it was the 



