THE IIxVRPY EAGLE 393 



Edwards, in his " Voyage up the Amazon," " that were 



brought to us, was a young harpy eagle, a most ferocious 



looking character, with a harpy's crest and a beak and talons 



in correspondence. He v/as turned loose into the garden, and 



before long gave us a sample of his 



powers. With erected crest and flashing 



eyes, uttering a frightful shriek, he 



pounced upon a young ibis, and quicker 



than thought had torn his reeking liver 



from his body. The whole animal world 



there was wild with fear." 



The harpy attains a greater size than ^^^^ ^^^^' 



the common eagle. He chiefly resides in the damp lowlands 

 of tropical America, where Prince Maximilian of Neu Wied 

 met with him only in the dense forests, perched on the high 

 branches. The monkey, vaulting by means of his tail from 

 tree to tree, mocks the pursuit of the tiger-cat and boa, but 

 woe to him if the harpy spies him out, for, seizing him with 

 lightning-like rapidity, he cleaves his skull with one single 

 stroke of his beak. 



Fear seems to be totally unknown to this noble bird, and he 

 defends himself to the last moment. D'Orbigny, relates that 

 one day, while descending a Bolivian river in a boat with some 

 Indians, they severely wounded a harpy with their arrows, so 

 that it fell from the branch on which it had been struck. 

 Stepping oTit of the canoe, the savages now rushed to the spot 

 where the bird lay, knocked it on the head, and tearing out the 

 feathers of its wings, brought it for dead to the boat. Yet the 

 harpy awakened from his trance, and furiously attacked his 

 persecutors. Throwing himself upon D'Orbigny he pierced his 

 hand through and through with the only talon that had been 

 left unhurt, while the mangled remains of the other tore his 

 arm, which at the same time he lacerated with his beak. Two 

 men were hardly able to release tlj^e naturalist from the attacks 

 of the ferocious bird. 



On turning from the New to the Old World, we find other 

 but not less interesting raptorial birds sweep through the higher 

 regions of the air in quest of prey. The gigantic oricou, or 

 Sociable Vulture ( Vultur auricidaris), inhabits the greater part 



