EAGLES. 125 



From the ease with, which the kite can keep the wing for a 

 great length of time, it obviously could perform long flights ; 

 and though we have not accounts of the excursions of kites 

 in this country, a straggler sometimes makes its appearance, 

 and indicates a journey across the Atlantic, as one at least 

 that which is nearly white, with black wings and tail comes 

 from America, and probably migrates there from Carolina to 

 Brazil.* The resident kite is subject to some variations of 

 colour, though less so than those species in which the sexes in 

 their mature plumage differ more from each other. 



EAGLES. 



Eagles have in every age been the most celebrated of rapa- 

 cious birds ; and in so far as power, strength, daring, and 

 grandeur of situation are concerned, they deserve their cele- 

 brity. They are in all respects the birds of the greatest ele- 

 vation. They frequent more lonely and secluded places than 

 any of the others; they nestle in more elevated, wild, and 

 inaccessible rocks; they rise much higher, and range much 

 farther; and their stoop, when they come down on their prey 

 from a great elevation, is perhaps the grandest display in the 

 whole action of animated nature. They are much larger than 

 any of the others; and though all birds are formed of nearly 

 the same materials, these seem consolidated in a peculiar 

 manner in every part of the eagles. Their bones are more 

 solid and specifically heavy ; and though, like the bones of all 

 birds, they are hollow for the free admission of air, yet they 

 are fortified by cross pieces extending from side to side of the 

 tubes, so as to offer complete resistance to every strain of the 



* Tins, a beautiful species, the fork- tailed kite (JElanus furcatus, Sav. 

 Falcofurcatus, Linn.) indigenous in Brazil, Peru, and the southern Statt s 

 of North Ameriea, has been twice taken in our island. One was killed 

 in 1772, at Ballachoalish, in Argyleshire ; the other was captured alive 

 in Shaw-Gill, near Hawes, Wonsley Dale, Yorkshire, in September 18Uo. 

 These were mere accidental stragglers. M. 



