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GOLDEN EAGLE. 



Aquila chrysaetos, SELBY. JENYNS. 



Falco " MONTAGU. 



Aquila An Eagle, possibly from Aquilus Dark sunburnt. 

 Chrysaetos Chrusos Gold. Aietos An Eagle. 



THE Golden Eagle is so called from the golden red feathers 

 on the head and nape of the neck. Jt seems to have 

 established a prescriptive right, though on what exclusively 

 sufficient grounds it might be difficult to say, to the proud 

 appellation of the king of birds, as the Tiger, in the corres- 

 ponding predatory class among quadrupeds, has obtained that 

 of 'Royal.' The epithet would however be more appropriately 

 conferred upon the Lion, to whom many noble qualities, to 

 be looked for in vain either in the Tiger or the Eagle, have 

 in all ages been attributed, though whether even in his case 

 justly, is more than doubtful. 



The appearance, however, of this bird, is certainly very 

 noble and majestic, though not more so, perhaps, than that of 

 many others of its family, and if his aspect is fine in the 

 only state in which we can have an opportunity of observing 

 him closely, how much more striking would it appear, if we 

 could, ourselves unseen, behold him in his state of nature, 

 standing on the outermost projection of some overhanging 

 precipice of the mountain, and looking out, with his large 

 and piercingly lustrous eye into the far distance below, for 

 some quarry on which to stoop for his own food, or that of 

 his young ones in the nest. 



The Golden Eagle seldom strays far from its native haunts, 

 and is, probably from the nature of its habits, not numerous in 

 any particular spot; but those habits make it but too much 

 so where it is found, which is, as may at once be imagined, 

 in the most mountainous and rocky, districts the natural 

 haunts of those 'fera3 naturae' which are its food or in large 



