70 DIVISION I. VERTEBRAL ANIMALS.—CLASS II. AVES. 
its victims ; death seems the work of an instant; the strongest eat, powerless 
in his grasp, is clutched, and expires. Nor will this surprise any one who 
has contemplated the power seated in the talons of this bird: strong as are 
the talons of the Golden Eagle, great as is the muscular development of its 
limbs, and formidable as are its claws, they seem almost trifling compared 
with those of the Harpy Eagle. “In the Museum of the Zodlogical Society 
are the skeletons of both these birds, which it is interesting to compare to- 
gether. The thickness of the bones of the limbs in the latter, and espe- 
cially of the tarsus, which is more than double that of the Golden Eagle, 
and the enormous size of the talons, are sufficient to convince the observer 
of the ease with which, when living, the fierce bird would bury its sharp- 
hooked claws in the vitals of its prey, and how vain resistance when the 
fatal grasp was taken. In its native regions, the Harpy Eagle is said to be 
by no means common: were it so, the destruction occasioned by its pres- 
ence would, it might be naturally expected, preponderate over the renovation 
of the species which constitute its habitual food, and the balance which 
Nature has established between the destroyed and the destroying, the san- 
guinary and their victims, be thus disarranged. No doubt that (as is the 
case with all carnivorous animals) its numerical ratio, in a given space, is 
proportionate to that of the animals on which it is destined habitually to 
feed. Where the sloth is most abundant, there will most abound the Harpy 
Eacle. 
The Pandionine, or Ospreys, are well known. The American species 
very closely resembles the European and Asiatic in characteristics of form 
and habit. 
Audubon, whose descriptions of the habits of American birds are always 
most interesting, says of the Osprey as follows : ~— 
“ As soon as the females make their appearance, which happens eight or 
ten days atter the arrival of the males, the love season commences, and, 
soon after, incubation takes place. The loves of these birds are conducted 
in a different way from those of the other falcons. The males are seen 
playing through the air amongst themselves, chasing each other in sport, or 
sailing by the side of, or after, the female which they have selected, uttering 
cries of joy and exultation, alighting on the branches of the tree on which their 
last year’s nest is yet seen remaining, and, doubtless, congratulating each 
other on finding their home again. Their caresses are mutual. They begin 
to augment their habitation, or to repair the injuries which it may have sus- 
tained during the winter, and are seen sailing together towards the shores, 
to collect the drifted sea-weeds, with which they line the nest anew. They 
alight on the beach, search for the dryest and largest weeds, collect a mass 
of them, clinch them in their talons, and fly towards their nest, with the 
