210 AQUILA CHRYS^TOS — GOLDEN EAGLE. 



yovmg, it does not indulge in these aerial gyrations, which 

 mam'- closet and some field naturalists have supposed to be 

 performed solely for the purpose of enabling it to spy out 

 its prey from afar. In its o.dinary flight, it draws its legs 

 close to the body, contracts its neck, and advances by reg- 

 ular flax3pings of the wings ; l)ut when sailing, it extends 

 these organs nearly to tlieir full stretch, curving them at 

 the same time a little upwards at the tips. An Eagle sweep- 

 iiig past in this manner is a most imposing object, the more 

 especially if in the vicinity of its rocky haunts, and still 

 more if the observer be groping liis way along the face of a 

 crag, anxiously seeking a point or crevice on which to rest 

 his foot. 



" Both our native eagles sometimes ascend to an immense 

 height in fine weather, and float high over the mountain 

 tops for hours together, but certainly not for the purpose of 

 descrying the objects beneath, for no person has ever ob- 

 serv 'd their sudden descent from this sublime station. It 

 is a popular notion, countenanced even by many anatomists 

 and others, who ought to know better, that the Eagle mounts 

 towards the sun in order to enjoy unrestricted the sight of 

 that glorious luminary. They tell us that its eye is peculi- 

 arly fitted for this purpose, by having a strong semi-opaque 

 nycitant membrane, by means of which the rays are blunted, 

 but they forget that the common duck, the domestic fowl, 

 and the sj)arrow, which are not addicted to astronomical 

 observations, have eyes organized precisely in the same 

 manner. 



" On the ground the Golden Eagle, like all others, is ex- 

 tremely awkward, for, owing to its large wings, its great 

 weight, and the form of its toes, which are encumbered with 

 very large curved and pointed claws, it can only walk in a 

 very deliberate manner, or remove from place to place by 

 repeated leaps, in performing which it calls in the aid of 

 its wings. Its feet, in fact, are not adapted for walking; 

 they are most powerful organs of prehension, capable of 



