153 THE GOLDEN EAGLE > 
in Great Britain during autumn and winter. It is sometimes seen 
in large flights on the Yarmouth Denes in October and November, 
at the same.'time with the Short-horned Owl. It mostly frequents 
the banks of rivers, where it feeds on vermin, reptiles, and the 
carcases of animals brought down by the floods. In softness of 
plumage and mode of flight, it resembles the Owls even more than 
the preceding species, and often extends its hunting expeditions 
until far into the evening. When not alarmed, it flies slowly and 
deliberately, and seemingly has neither the inclination nor the 
power to attack living birds, unless they have been previously 
disabled by wounds or other cause. The Rough-legged Buzzard 
builds its nest in lofty trees, and lays three or four eggs; but 
there are no well-authenticated instances of its breeding in this 
country. 
THE SPOTTED EAGLE 
AQUILA NEVIA 
General colour reddish brown ; tail brown above; legs feathered in front of 
the toes. Length twenty-six inches. 
Tuls species is only a rare straggler to Great Britain. 
Sus-Famity AQUILINZ 
THE GOLDEN EAGLE 
AQUILA CHRYSAETOS 
Tail longer than the wings, rounded ; plumage of the head, back of the neck 
and legs, lustrous reddish brown, of the rest of the body dark brown ; 
primaries nearly black; secondaries brownish black; tail dark grey, 
barred and tipped with brownish black; beak bluish at the base, black 
at the extremity ; iris brown; cere and feet yellow; claws bluish black. 
Length of the male three feet, that of the female more; breadth eight 
feet. Eggs dirty white, mottled with pale reddish brown. 
TuE fable of the Eagle soaring to a great height in order to enjoy 
a gaze at the sun in his unclouded brilliancy, is founded probably 
on a belief of the ancients, thus stated by the naturalist Pliny :— 
‘Before its young are as yet fledged, the Eagle compels them to 
gaze at the rays of the sun, and if it observes one to wink or show 
a watery eye casts it from the nest as a degenerate offspring ; if, 
on the contrary, it preserves a steady gaze, it is saved from this 
hard fate, and brought up.” 
‘The Golden Eagle’, says Macgillivray, ‘seems to prefer live 
