GOLDEN EAGLE. 13 



attended and fed them, but were as ready to attack him as a 

 stranger. 



In the menagerie at the Gardens of the Zoological So- 

 ciety there are two Golden Eagles, and four White-tailed 

 Eagles ; but the keepers find the Golden Eagles the most 

 tractable of the two species. 



" Captain Green, of Buckden in Huntingdonshire, has 

 now in his possession a splendid specimen of the Golden 

 Eagle, which he has himself trained to take hares and rab- 

 bits." — Naturalist for Mai/ 1837. 



The whole length of an adult male Golden Eagle is nearly 

 three feet ; the adult female is still larger. The beak is 

 bluish horn colour, darkest at the tip ; the cere yellow ; the 

 skin of the lore tinged with blue ; the irides hazel, the pupils 

 black ; the feathers on the top of the head and back of the 

 neck pointed in shape, and rufous brown : the general colour 

 of the plumage of the body dark brown, the chin and throat 

 particularly so ; the wing primaries nearly black, the second- 

 aries brownish black ; the wing-coverts reddish brown, varied 

 with dark brown : the feathers of the belly and thighs bay ; 

 those of the tail varied with two shades of brown, the ends 

 dark : the legs covered with bay feathers ; the toes yellow 

 and reticulated, except the last or distal joint of each toe, 

 which is covered with three broad scales ; the claws are 

 black, the outer claw of each foot the smallest of the four. 



In a younger specimen of the Golden Eagle with the basal 

 or proximal half of the tail white, the feathers on the back 

 of the neck were less rufous, and the general colour of the 

 plumage on the body and wings more uniform, and darker. 

 In this state it is the Ring-tailed Eagle of authors. White 

 varieties of the Golden Eagle have been seen and recorded. 



The foot of the Golden Eagle is so distinctly marked 

 from that of the White-tailed, or Cinereous Eaa^le, as to 



