DUNNOCK— EAGLE 173 



DUNNOCK, a local name of the Hedge-SPARROW. 



DUNTER, generally Avith the addition of "Goose," a name of 

 the EiDER-DuCK. 



DYSPOROMORPH.^, the third "Family" of Desmognathous 

 birds according to Prof. Huxley's classification {Froc. Zool. Soc. 

 1867, pp. 438-440, 461, 462) answering to the Steganopodes of 

 Illiger, and including two groups, the Pelicanidx in a restricted sense, 

 and then all the rest — CORMORANTS, Snake-birds, Frigate-birds 

 and Tropic Birds. Whatever be the shape of the bill in all these, 

 and it varies much, the exterior nares are very small, there are 

 no basipterygoid processes ; while, behind the posterior nares, the 

 palatals unite for a considerable distance ; and other characters are 

 recognizable. 



E 



EAGLE (French Aigle, from the Latin Aqiiila), the name 

 generally given to the larger diurnal Birds-of-Prey which are not 

 Vultures ; but the limits of the subfamily Aquilinm have been very 

 variously assigned by different writers on systematic ornithology, 

 and, as elsewhere observed (Buzzard), there are Eagles smaller 

 than certain Buzzards. By some authorities the L.^MMERGEIER of 

 the Alps, and other high mountains of Europe, North Africa, and 

 Asia, is accounted an Eagle, but by others the genus Gypaetus is 

 placed with the Vnlturidx, as its common English name (Bearded 

 Vulture) shews. There are also other forms, such as the South- 

 American Harpy and its allies, which though generally called 

 Eagles have been ranked as Buzzards. In the absence of any 

 truly scientific definition of the Aquilinse,^ it is best to leave these 

 and many other more or less questionable members of the group — 

 such as the genera Spizaetus, Circaetus, Spilornis, Helotaraus, and so 

 forth — and, so far as space will allow, to treat here of those whose 

 position cannot be gainsaid. 



Eagles inhabit all the Regions of the world except New Zealand, 

 and some seven or more species are found in Europe, of which two 

 are resident in the British Islands. In England and in the Low- 

 lands of Scotland Eagles only exist as stragglers ; but in the 

 Hebrides and some parts of the Highlands a good many may yet 

 be found ; and, though one species is verging upon extermination 

 as a native, the numbers of the other appear to have rather 



^ The nearest approach to a characteristic is perhaps that afforded by the 

 elongated head, and bill straight at the base, as before remarked {supra, p. 67) ; 

 but this is possibly not unfailing. 



