NATIONAL ZOOLOGICAL PARK—BAKER. 473 
tant, a name given to it from its severe aspect. Great flocks of them 
are seen in eastern countries, where they serve as scavengers. It has 
a curious way of reposing by bending its legs and resting on what is 
really the tarsus. From this bird come the marabou feathers so 
much prized for ladies’ boas. The specimen at the park is from 
India, but there are closely related species in Africa and Java. In 
front of its neck there may be seen a large throat pouch, connected 
with the respiratory apparatus, which has puzzled naturalists a good 
deal, as its functions are not exactly known. It has been thought to 
assist the lungs by affording a reservoir of air during rapid feeding, 
also to give additional resonance to the voice, or to attract the female 
by its expansion while strutting. The bird is a very silent one, and 
its mating habits have not been carefully observed, as it seeks seclu- 
sion upon the highest points of inaccessible rocks. 
THE HARPY EAGLE. 
In 1899 the United States sent a naval vessel up the Amazon as 
far as Iquitos, Peru, with a view to obtaining information regarding 
the commercial development of the country. The Secretary of the 
Navy kindly instructed the commanding officer to collect for the park 
such animals as could be readily obtained without impeding in any 
way the expedition, A number of important additions to the collec- 
tion were secured, one of the most beautiful being the harpy eagle. 
This kingly bird was presented by the governor of the Province of 
Amazonas, Brazil, at Manaos, and came from the upper Amazon. 
Plate 34 does not do justice to its imperial air and lordly pres- 
ence. It created a considerable sensation when carried through 
the streets of New York to be shipped to Washington. Its nature is 
by no means expressed by the name which has been given it. The 
harpy of Grecian mythology was a ravenous, unclean creature having 
the head of a woman and the wings and claws of a bird. Readers of 
Vergil will recall that when Aineas and his companions reached in 
their wanderings the Strophades, two little islands in the Ionian Sea, 
they were attacked while eating by the harpies, who, when driven 
away, prophesied dire calamities to the Trojans. Our eagle does not 
deserve such a name, for it is clean and dainty, proud as a Spanish 
don, and very fond of attention. It raises or lowers the crest upon 
its head at will, and it delights to spread its great wings and sidle 
along its perch at its keeper’s call. If it is shown a monkey, it is at 
once excited and flutters and seizes the bars of its cage in attempts to 
get at it. Monkeys probably constitute most of its food when in its 
native haunts, but it also attacks peccaries, sloths, and fawns. The 
bird is found throughout tropical America as far north as southern 
Mexico. 
