DUNNOCK—EAGLE 173 
DUNNOCK, a local name of the Hedge-Sparrow. 
DUNTER, generally with the addition of ‘‘ Goose,” a name of 
the EmEr-DUcK. 
DYSPOROMORPH Ai, the third “ Family” of DESMOGNATHOUS 
birds according to Prof. Huxley’s classification (Proc. Zool. Soc. 
1867, pp. 438-440, 461, 462) answering to the STEGANOPODES of 
Illiger, and including two groups, the Pelicanidz in a restricted sense, 
and then all the rest—CoRMORANTS, SNAKE-BIRDS, FRIGATE-BIRDS 
and Tropic Birps. Whatever be the shape of the bill in all these, 
and it varies much, the exterior nares are very small, there are 
no basipterygoid processes ; while, behind the posterior nares, the 
palatals unite for a considerable distance ; and other characters are 
recognizable. 
i 
EAGLE (French Aigle, from the Latin Aquila), the name 
generally given to the larger diurnal Birds-of-Prey which are not 
Vultures ; but the limits of the subfamily Aquiline have been very 
variously assigned by different writers on systematic ornithology, 
and, as elsewhere observed (BUZZARD), there are Eagles smaller 
than certain Buzzards. By some authorities the LAMMERGEIER of 
the Alps, and other high mountains of Europe, North Africa, and 
Asia, is accounted an Eagle, but by others the genus Gypaetus is 
placed with the Vuliwridx, as its common English name (Bearded 
Vulture) shews. There are also other forms, such as the South- 
American Harpy and its allies, which though generally called 
Eagles have been ranked as Buzzards. In the absence of any 
truly scientific definition of the Aquilinx,' it is best to leave these 
and many other more or less questionable members of the group— 
such as the genera Spizaetus, Circaetus, Spilornis, Helotarsus, and so 
forth—and, so far as space will allow, to treat here of those whose 
position cannot be gainsaid. 
Eagles inhabit all the Regions of the world except N ew Zealand, 
and some seven or more species are found in Europe, of which two 
are resident in the British Islands. In England and in the Low- 
lands of Scotland Eagles only exist as stragglers; but in the 
Hebrides and some parts of the Highlands a good many may yet 
be found ; and, though one species is verging upon extermination 
as a native, the numbers of the other appear to have rather 
1 The nearest approach to a characteristic is perhaps that afforded by the 
elongated head, and bill straight at the base, as before remarked (supra, p. 67) ; 
but this is possibly not unfailing. 
