EA GLES. 281 



are likewise robbed whenever they are found in accessible places ; the eggs, from their 

 rarity in collections, always bringing a good i)rice. Hence the Liimraergeyer is fast 

 disajipoaring from Europe, being now very rarely seen in Switzerland, where it was 

 once coinnioii, though still found in some numbers in Spain, where it has been less 

 persecuted. 



A second species of Gi/paetus, G. meridiotialis, is credited to northeastern Africa, 

 and is said to be easily distinguished by having the lower part of the tarsus bare. It 

 also differs somewhat in head markings, but all the differences are so slight, and the 

 chai-acters themselves so variable in the true Lammergeyer, that probably it will prove 

 to be merely a geographical race of this liird. 



We give the following anecdote of this species on the authority of Rev. J. G. 

 Wood, who says: "Bruce gives a graphic and amusing narrative of the cool audacity 

 that was displayed by one of these birds. The author, with a number of his attend- 

 ants, were seated on the summit of a mountain, engaged in cooking their dinner, 

 when a Lammergeyer came slowly sailing over the ground, and boldly alighted 

 close to the dish of boiled meat around wiiich the men were sitting. Undismayed 

 by their shouts of distress, he quietly proceeded to reconnoitre the spot, while the 

 men were running for their spears and shields, and, going up to the pot in which 

 some goat's flesh was boiling, he inserted his foot for the purpose of abstracting 

 the meat. Kot being prepared for the sudden scalding which ensued, he hastily 

 withdrew his foot and fastened on a leg and shoulder of goat's flesh wliich were 

 lying on the dish, carrying them away before he could be intercepted. The attend- 

 ants were quite afraid of the bird, and assured Mr. Bruce that it would return in 

 a short time for more meat. Accordingly, in a verj' few minutes, back came the 

 Lammergeyer, but was evidently rather suspicious at the look of Mr. Bruce, who 

 had taken u]) his rifle and was sitting close to the pan of meat. In spite of the shouts 

 of the .attendants, the bird, which evidently held in the greatest contempt the warlike 

 capabilities of the natives, and was not prepared for Euro])ean weapons and hands, 

 settled on the ground about ten yards from the meat, and the next instant was lying 

 dead on the earth with a rifle-ball through its body. When brought to the scales the 

 dead bird was found to weigh twenty-two pounds, and the expanse of its wings was 

 eight feet four inches, although it was undergoing its moult at the time." 



Most of the typical eagles are included under the genera Aquila and ITalia'dtus, each 

 of which comprises from five to twenty species distributed through all countries, but 

 perhajis most poorly represented in Xorth America, where we have only one species 

 of each genus, viz., the golden-eagle, Aquila ckrysaetus, common to Europe, Asia, 

 and North America, and the bald-headed eagle, HaKa'etus leucocephaliis, peculiar to 

 North America. The Old World white-tailed sea-eagle, // albicilhi, which very 

 closely resembles a large and poorly colored bald-eagle, is found in Greenland, but not 

 elsewhere in North America, though abundant in Europe and Asia and even in Kams- 

 chatka and tlie Aleutian Islands. 



In Aquila the tarsus is feathered to the toes; in IMiaetus only about half way 

 from heel to toes. The members of the genus .4 f^KiVw are often spoken of as 'true 

 eagles' as distinguished from the equally large but less regal Haliaeti, "Khich are 

 certainly more addicted to fishing, and perhaps oftencr feed on carrion, but in this 

 latter particular there is little choice. Otlier writers call both these genera 'true' 

 eagles, relegating to the ' so-called eagles ' the related genera Ilaliastur, J/elotarsus, 

 Nisaitus, and almost any hawk or buzzard of large size. 



