514 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Brazil, is much larger, but both are much alike in general appearance. The 

 harpy is one of the .strongest birds in the world. It will attack almost 

 anything. Full-grown turkey-cocks, sloths, foxes and badgers, pigs and 

 dogs, are game for it ; and even the large sapajou monkey, three times the 

 size of the harpy, stands no chance. They may even give a man a hard 

 struggle. Dr. Felix Oswald has given a most excellent description of the 

 habits of these birds, and relates the experience which a Mexican miner 

 had with a couple of them. He knocked one down with his cudgel, and 

 put an end to its struggles with a few well-directed blows. Shoulder- 

 ing his game he started down the mountains ; but in the most perilous 

 part of the descent he suddenly felt the claw of the eagle at his neck. 

 He managed to free himself, and grasping the bird by his legs, pounded its 

 head against the stones until its struggles ceased. At last he reached the 

 village and deposited the bird on the ground, when it revived again, struck 

 its claws through the hand of its captor, struggled to its feet, and would 

 have escaped after all had not the now thoroughly enraged miner flung 

 himself upon it, and with a stone hammered its head to a jelly. 



The harpy is absolute ruler in his domain. He tolerates none of that 

 interference by other birds. Excepting the iris-crow no other bird pesters 

 him, as so many do the eagles and hawks of our own latitudes. The 

 eagles and the owls must keep out of his way, and the sea-eagle is pursued 

 for miles, whenever he ventures into the region of the harpy. The harpy 

 is impatient of any competition, for competition reduces the supply of 

 food. The adult bird devours an immense amount ; but the young are 

 even more exacting. " The callow harpies," says Dr. Oswald, "with their 

 pendant crops, their misshapen, big heads, and their preposterous claws, 

 resemble embryo demons, or infantine chimaeras rather than any creatures 

 of nature ; but they grow very rapidly, and their appetite during the first 

 six months of their existence is almost insatiable." It kept one Indian 

 boy constantly busy to feed a couple of young birds. 



The squirrel-hawk and the rough-legged buzzard are first-cousins. The 

 former is confined to the Pacific slope ; but the other ranges over the 

 whole of northern North America, and Europe as well. The rough-legged 

 buzzard is rather nocturnal in its habits, and feeds upon pretty small 

 game, which others of its relatives would despise. It usually neglects the 

 larger birds and mammals, and pays its attention to mice and moles, frogs 

 and snakes. 



The term ' hen-hawk ' is rather elastic and indefinite, and is usually 

 applied to some two or three species of birds, which when occasion offers 

 swoop down from on high, on the poultry in the barnyard. These species 

 are known by various book names, as the red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered 



