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139 

 Zl)c 6olDen jEa^le. 



CAquila chrysa'ilns) 

 By C. Casti,e-Si.oane, F.Z.S. 



HAT innumerable legends and fables have 

 been written about this, the king of birds ! 

 What persecution has it suffered — not only 

 being shot, but actually in some cases its 

 nest, with eaglets in it, being destroyed by burning ! 

 The bird I possess is a young one about two years 

 old ; it is of a deep brown all over, with a tawny tint 

 on its neck and head, the legs yellow feathered down 

 almost to the toes, the claws black, and the tail dark 

 brown at the base, with the upper part ashy white. It 

 measures about six feet from tip to tip of wing. 



It occasionally utters short whimpering cries, and 

 appears to be quite tame, though in this it is deceptive, 

 as the attendant has found out. Once or twice he 

 stroked it, until on one occasion it fastened its claws 

 round his wrist, when he gave up doing so. These 

 birds are sometimes fastened by the leg to a stump in 

 the ground, a proceeding I should think likely to break 

 the bird's leg, and affording no enjoyment to the owner 

 or to the bird. The one I have is in an aviary about 

 18 ft. long by 10 ft. wide ; it seldom enters the closed 

 portion, and prefers to sit outside in the worst sort of 

 weather. I have never seen this bird drink, but I have 

 noticed, after he has eaten a rabbit, some moisture drip- 

 ping from his beak. As an experiment I once turned 

 a live rat into the aviary to see how he would kill it, but 

 it seemed to be the other way about, for when the rat 

 climbed the wire netting and walked towards the Eagle, 

 he took no notice until the rat began to nibble the 

 feathers on his leg, which frightened him so much 

 that he half flew and half tumbled off the perch. 

 Another time the rat took it into his head to jump on 

 to the Eagle's back, which caused the latter to knock 

 himself about so much that I had to take the rat out. 



