94 LEAVES FROM THE 



the observer remarks, may account for the unusual ex- 

 citement manifested by these birds in pairing time. But, 

 he adds, why there are so many is a mystery. 



It is, perhaps, consistent with natural law that everything 

 should be abundant ; but from this bird, it is said, no more than 

 two young are hatched in a season, consequently no more eggs are 

 wanted than a sufficiency to produce that effect. Are the eggs 

 numbered originally, and is there no increase of number, but a 

 gradual loss till all are deposited ? If so, the number may corre- 

 spond to the long life and vigorous health of this noble bird. 

 Why there are but two young in a season is easily explained. 

 Nature has been studiously parsimonious of her physical strength, 

 from whence the tribes of animals incapable to resist derive 

 security and confidence. 



That which the indefatigable Mr. Gould could not 

 obtain in the native country of the bird, he may now find 

 in the Garden of the Zoological Society of London. The 

 wedged-tailed eagle,* the Wol-dja of the aborigines of 

 the mountain and lowland districts of Western Australia, 

 the eagle hawk of the colonists, and the mountain eagle 

 of New South Wales of Collins, laid the first egg de- 

 posited in this country by one of her race on the 27th of 

 February, in the present year. On the 28th it was 

 placed under a common hen, which sat very close but 

 fruitlessly, and on the 21st of March the addled egg was 

 removed. On the 4th of March she laid a second egg, 

 which was also placed under a hen now sitting. 



* Aquilafucosa, Cuv. In the gallery of the French Museum it 

 appears to have been ticketed, according to Mr. Bennett, as Aquila 

 fuscosa, a name under which it is mentioned in the Supplement to 

 the Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles, in the English translation 

 of Cuvier's work, and in the last edition published by himself. 

 Mr. Bennett supposes that this ^unmeaning term' crept in erro- 

 neously fov fucosa, as Temminck and Vigors both v^ite it, and as 

 ornithologists now generally do. Some better appellation than 

 either might have been found for so noble a species. But names 

 must not be altered, or the greatest confusion — there is quite 

 enough already — would prevail. 



