GOLDEN EAGLE. 
Aquila chrysaétos, SELBY. JENYNS. 
Falco : MonrTacu, 
Aquila—An Eagle, possibly from Aquidus—Dark—sunburnt. 
Chrysaétos— Chrusos—Gold. Aietos—An Eagle, 
Tue Golden Eagle is so called from the golden red feathers 
on the head and nape of the neck. It seems to have 
established a prescriptive right, though on what exclusively 
sufficient grounds it might be difficult to say, to the proud 
appellation of the king of birds, as the Tiger, in the corres- 
pending predatory class among quadrupeds, has obtained that 
of ‘Royal.’ The epithet would however be more appropriately 
conferred upon the Lion, to whom many noble qualities, to 
be looked for in vain either in the Tiger or the Hagle, have 
in all ages been attributed, though whether even in his case 
justly, is more than doubtful. 
The appearance, however, of this bird, is certainly very 
noble and majestic, though not more so, perhaps, than that of 
many others of its family, and if his aspect is fine in the 
only state in which we can have an opportunity of observing 
him closely, how much more striking would it appear, if we 
could, ourselves unseen, behold him in his state of nature, 
standing on the outermost projection of some overhanging 
precipice of the mountain, and looking out, with his large 
and piercingly lustrous eye into the far distance below, for 
some quarry on which to stoop for his own food, or that of 
his young ones in the nest. 
The Golden Eagle seldom strays far from its native haunts, 
and is, probably from the nature of its habits, not numerous in 
any particular spot; but those habits make it but too much 
so where it is found, which is, as may at once be imagined, 
in the most mountainous and rocky districts—the natural 
haunts of these ‘feree: nature’ which are its food—or in large 
