EAGLES. 



283 



themselves, who have learned that a large price can be obtained for its eggs, and so, 

 after robbing a nest once each season, allow a second set of eggs to be hatched and 

 the young to be reared. The American bird has usually been considered a variety of 

 the Old World species, and distinguished by the name canadensis. The only points, 

 however, in which the two forms differ, are the slightly larger size and darker plum- 

 age of the American bird, the latter point being most easily recognized in the young. 

 The adults range in length from two and one half to three feet, and the wings spread 

 from six to seven feet. 



FIG. 132. HaliaStus vocifer, African sea-eagle. 



The smallest member of the genus is the dwarf-eagle, Aquila pennata, a native of 

 southern Europe, north Africa, and India, which measures only eighteen inches or two 

 feet in length. Other notable species are the king-eagle, A. heliaca, of southeastern 

 Europe and Asia, equalling the golden in size, and supposed by many to be the 

 species once adopted as the emblem of the Roman empire; the imperial eagle, 

 A. mogilnik, but slightly inferior to the last, and with about the same range; 

 A. verreauxi, of south Africa, and A. ( Uroaetus) audax, the bold or wedge-tailed 



