THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 99 



ring-tailed eagles are distinct. 2dly, That which pre- 

 vailed pretty generally in France some years ago — namely, 

 that the golden eagle is the young of the ring-tailed eagle. 

 and, Sdly, The opinion of more recent origin, novt 

 strengthened by the concurrence of Mr Selby, that the 

 ring-tail is the young of the golden eagle. The first 

 opinion is the one which I have adopted. The second, 1 

 have endeavoured to refute chiefly by shewing that if the 

 golden eagle were the young of the ring-tail, it would not 

 only be as common as that species, but much more so ; 

 because, if every pair of adult ring-tailed eagles breed once 

 in the year, and produce two young at a brood, and if 

 these young require three years to attain their perfect 

 plumage (as the advocates of this opinion have stated), 

 then it follows that at the lapse of every period of three 

 years, there would be three pair of young golden eagles 

 for every single pair of adult ring-tailed eagles which 

 existed at the commencement of that period — in other 

 words, that the golden eagle would be three times more 

 common than the ring-tailed eagle. The reverse of which, 

 however, is really the case — the ring-tailed eagle being 

 six or eight times more common than the golden eagle. 



" The third opinion escapes the objection arising from 

 the disparity in point of numbers, which I think insuper- 

 able in regard to the second opinion, but in many other 

 respects it is equally if not more objectionable than that 



