EAGLES. 



287 



Amongst the scores of other species belonging to this populous sub-family, it is 

 only jiDSsible for us to notice a few of the most striking or tyjiical. The s|)ecios thus 

 far spoken of seem rather closely related to tiic eagles, and j)erhaps more especially to 

 Aquihi. There are many others, however, which would naturally be associated with 

 the buzzards, although from tlieir size many of them are called cairles, and at once 

 suggest the IlaliaeUis type; while, finally, not a few are referred by naturalists 

 almost as often to one group as the other. An example of this latter class is seen in 

 the short-tailed eagle, Ilelotarsus ecaudatus, from the lower half of Africa, remarkable 

 for its rich maroon and black plumage, crested head, extremely short tail, and coral- 

 red legs and feet. 



Tropical and South America furnish us witli a group of three remarkably large, 

 crested species, usually referred to as many genera, which may collectively be fairly 

 called buzzard-eagles. The smallest is the Guiana eagle, Morp/tniis yuutnensis, in 

 M-hich, however, the tail is longer, both proportionally and actually, than in either of 

 the others, if not indeed than in any other eagle whatever, the Australian wedge- 

 tailed eagle possibly excepted. The w ings, on the contrary, are, as in the two following 

 genera, r.ither short and rounded, these birds being better fitted for pouncing suddenly 

 and at short range on their prey, than for lofty sailing and long stoops, while the 

 lengthened but very strong tail must be of great use in the close and tortuous pursuit 

 of birds among the dense forests which these birds love to make their homes. Tliis 

 eagle inhabits the dense forests of the Amazon as well as those of Guiana, but is 

 almost exclusively a forest inhabiter, rarely, if ever, ranging over the open country. 



Jfarpi/haliuetiis coronatiis is another crested form, but little inferior in size to the 

 bald-eagle, of a jiretty uniform ashy brown color, with white-tipped npj)er tail-coverts, 

 and two white bars on the tail, a narrow one .at tip, and a broad one in the middle. 

 Thougli a powerfully built bird, and on occasion a daring hunter, it frei|uenlly, like so 

 many of its 'nobler' relatives, contents itself with carrion. Described by Azara as 

 long .ago as 1802, it is still a rare bird in collections, though fairly abundant in some 

 parts of southern South America. 



The harpy-eagle, 77inisaeti/s harpyia (also known as JIarpxjia destructor), is one of 

 the most powerful birds of prey in the world. In total length it is slightly greater 

 than the golden-eagle, owing to the gre.at length of tail. In expanse of wings, how- 

 ever, it is rather less ; but when we come to compare the proportions of beak and 

 claws, and the strength of the bony framework, it is evident th.at the har|iy is without 

 a rival. Dr. Oswald, in the "American N.aturalist" for March, 1878, thus describes 

 its physique : — 



"A s(|uare, strong head, armed with a most viciously curved, ]iowerful l)ill, that 

 can crush a man's finger-bones without any si>ecial effort, and dislocate the neck of a 

 squirrel-monkey by a single wrench. Broad, compact wings, moved by shoulder 

 muscles of enormous strength, ;md a jiair of stout legs feathered to below the tai-si, 

 that terminate in claws of such extraordinary ]iower ami sharpness that they leave 

 marks on the skin of a quadruped, and even on the tough leather of a Mexican 

 saddle, like the bite of a wild-c.nt. The harpy is often killed for the sake of its 

 feathers — I mean for the feather-bed value of its ])luinage — by tiie Mexican Indians, 

 and, if jducked, yields .about four pounds of soft, grayish-white down, beside the stiff 

 wing and tail feathers and the bristling tuft which crowns its hea.l. This plumage is 

 so elastic, so comi)act, and so firmly imbricated, that buckshot, striking the wings or 

 the breast of the bird at a certain angle, glance off or fail to penetrate to vital (.arts; 



