GOLDEN EAGLE. 19 



The nest, which is very large, and has no lining, according 

 to some authors, but is stated by others to be lined a little 

 with grass or wool, and where these cannot be procured, or 

 not in sufficient plenty, with small sticks, twigs, rushes, sea- 

 weed, or heather, is generally built on high and inaccessible 

 rocks and precipices, or the stump of some tree projecting 

 from them, or the lofty trees of the forest. It is always, 

 where possible, rebuilt of the same materials the accustomed 

 eyrie being made use of for many successive years, or, most 

 likely, from the most favourable locality as to food and security 

 combined having been chosen, for many generations, if its 

 owners are not driven from it by their only superior enemy, 

 man. This latter assertion must however be understood with 

 certain exceptions, as in the instances recorded above. 



The eggs, generally two in number, but in some cases three, 

 are pure white, sometimes greyish white, and sometimes 

 completely mottled or marbled over with light russet brown. 



The length of the male bird is about three feet or three 

 and a half, and the expanse of the wings eight feet to eight 

 and a half; the female, as is the case with the rest of the 

 Eagle tribe, is larger, measuring about three feet and a half 

 in length, and nine feet in width: one was killed at Wark- 

 worth, in Northumberland, which measured the unusual size 

 of eleven feet and a quarter from tip to tip. 



In the adult, which weighs from nine to sixteen or eighteen 

 pounds, the bill, (with which it sometimes makes a snapping 

 noise,) is horn-colour, or deep blue; the cere, pure yellow; 

 the iris, which is dark in the young bird, grows lighter as 

 the bird advances in age, and ends in being of a clear orange 

 brown; the crown of the head and the nape, the feathers of 

 which are hackles, are sometimes bright golden red, but 

 generally of a grey or hoary colour; all the rest of the body 

 is obscure dark brown, more nearly approaching to black as 

 the bird grows older; but when in extreme age, to which 

 the Eagle is known to reach, its plumage becomes very light 

 coloured, thin and worn, so much so, as to make it appear 

 that the bird had ceased to moult. The tail, which is a little 

 longer than the wings, and of a square shape, with the ex- 

 ception of the two middle feathers, which exceed the others 

 in length, and are rather pointed, is deep brown, paler on 

 the base, barred with dark brown, with one broad bar ter- 

 minating it. The legs are feathered down to the toes, and 

 the plumage on them is of a clearer brown than that on the 



