130 ACCIPITRES. 



The length of the full-grown female is upwards of three 

 feet, and the extent of the wings between seven and eight 

 feet. Specimens have been mentioned that measured as 

 much as eleven feet, though the accounts of these may be 

 a little exaggerated. It is very probable, however, that the 

 ultimate size to which the birds attain depends, in a con- 

 siderable degree, on the supply of food they receive when 

 young, and it may be partially also on the climate. Hence, 

 when the golden eagle had haunts more southerly, and in 

 richer pastures than any which it now frequents in this 

 country, it may have grown to a larger size. 



The popular natural history of the eagles is more obscure 

 than that of many less noticed and less interesting birds. 

 All very large birds of prey that are seen flying at great 

 elevations are regarded not only as eagles, but as the golden 

 eagle itself; and, on the other hand, those who place the 

 chief distinction in colour, have multiplied the golden eagle 

 into different species. 



The bird with which the golden eagle has sometimes been 

 confounded is the white-tailed, or sea eagle, which is of much 

 more frequent occurrence ; and though the brown is not 

 nearly so rich, or the points of the neck-feathers so well made 

 out, and the bird seems altogether of a laxer and looser 

 make when they are seen together, yet the general colours 

 are so much alike, especially when the golden eagle is young, 

 and has white in the tail, that, to casual observation, the 

 one may pass for the other. But, upon comparison, the 

 looser form of the head, the pale beak, the naked tarsi, and 

 a comparative want of firmness and decision in all the 

 feathers, and of compactness in the body, show at once that 

 the bird, however large it may be, is not the golden eagle. 

 On the other hand, while the golden eagle is in the young 

 plumage, and the feathers of the tail are partly white, 

 forming what has been called the " ring-tail," the bill, the 



