EAGLE 177 



water is not requisite. The eggs, from two to four in number, 

 vary from a pure white to a mottled, and often highly-coloured, 

 surface, on which appear different shades of red and purple. The 

 adult bird is of a rich, dark brown, with the elongated feathers of 

 the neck, especially on the nape, light tawny, in which imagination 

 sees a " golden " hue, and the tail marbled with brown and ashy- 

 grey. In the young the tail is white at the base, whence in this 

 stage it has been often called the Eing-tailed Eagle, and the neck 

 has scarcely any tawny tint. The Golden Eagle does not occur in 

 Iceland, but occupies suitable situations over the rest of the 

 Palaearctic area and a considerable portion of the Nearctic — though 

 the American bird has been, by some, considered a distinct species. 

 Domesticated, it has many times been trained to take prey for 

 its master in Europe, and to this species is thought to belong an 

 Eagle habitually used by the Kirgiz Tartars, who call it Bergiit or 

 Bear coot, ^ for the capture of antelopes, foxes, and wolves. It is 

 carried hooded on horseback or on a perch between two men, and 

 released when the quarry is in sight. Such a bird, when well 

 trained, is valued, says Pallas, at the price of two camels. It is 

 quite possible, however, that more than one kind of Eagle is thus 

 used, and the services of A. heliaca (which is the Imperial Eagle of 

 some writers ^) and of A. mogilnik — both of which are found in 

 Central Asia, as well as in South-eastern Europe — may also be 

 employed. 



Of the other more or less nearly allied species or races want of 

 room forbids the consideration, but there is a smaller form on 

 which a few words may be said. This has usually gone under the 

 name of A. nmna or Spotted Eagle, but is now thought by the best 

 authorities to include three local races, or, in the eyes of some, 

 species. They inhabit Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia to 

 India, and five examples of one of them — A. clanga, the form which 

 is somewhat plentiful in North-eastern Germany — have occurred in 

 England. The smallest true Eagle is A. pennata, which inhabits 

 Southern Europe, Africa, and India. Differing from other Eagles 

 of this genus by its wedge-shaped tail, though otherwise greatly 

 resembling them, is the A. audax of Australia. Lastly may be 



niche in what passes for a perpendicular cliff to which access could only be 

 gained by a skilful cragsman with a rope, the writer has known a nest to within 

 ten or fifteen yards of which he rode on a pony. Two beautiful views of as many 

 Golden Eagles' nests, drawn on the spot by Mr. Wolf, are given in the Ootheca 

 WoUeyana, and a fine series of eggs is also figured in the same work. 



^ The similarity between this name and the "Welsh Barcud, said by Pennant 

 {Brit. Zool. Ed. 4, ii. pp. 620, 621) to be Kite or Harrier, hut, as Lord Lilford 

 informs me, really equivalent to Buzzard, is worth noting. 



- Which species may have been the traditional emblem of Roman power, and 

 the Ales Jovis, is very uncertain. 



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