GREY EAGLE 49 
Argentine country this is the commonest Eagle, and 
I found it very abundant in Patagonia, D’Orbigny 
describes it with his usual prolixity—pardonably so 
in this case, however, the bird being one of the very 
few species with which he appears to have become 
familiar from personal observation. He says that it 
is a wary bird; pairs for life, the male and female 
never being found far apart; and that it soars in 
circles with a flight resembling that of a Vulture ; 
and that the form of its broad blunt wings increases 
its resemblance to that bird. Cavies and small 
mammals are its usual prey; and in the autumn 
and winter, when the Pigeons congregate in large 
numbers, it follows their movements. During the 
Pigeon-season he has counted as many as thirty 
Eagles in the course of a three leagues’ ride; and he 
has frequently seen an Eagle swoop down into a cloud 
of Pigeons, and invariably reappear with one strug- 
gling in its talons. It is seldom found far from the 
shores of the sea or of some large river ; and on the 
Atlantic coast, in Patagonia, it soars above the sands 
at ebb-tide, looking out for stranded fish, carcases 
of seals, and other animal food left by the retiring 
waters, and quarrels with Condors and Vultures over 
the refuse, even when it is quite putrid. It acts as 
a weather prognostic, and before a storm is seen to 
rise in circles to a vast height in the air, uttering 
piercing screams, which may be heard after it has 
quite disappeared from sight. 
The nest of this species is usually built on the 
ledge of an inaccessible rock or precipice, but not 
D II 
