THE HARPY EAGLE. 261 



under surface whitish, dotted with fawn. A living spe- 

 cimen, now in the Menagerie of the Tower, appears to 

 be still farther advanced towards the adult state. In 

 it the collar, crest, back, and wing-coverts, are almost 

 uniformly gray ; the quill-feathers of the wings are 

 black ; the under surface of the body is dirty white ; 

 and each of the tail-feathers is marked beneath by four 

 large black patches crossing its shaft and occupying 

 about half its width. 



W e now turn our attention to the synonymy. 



M. Temminck, the latest writer on this magnificent 

 bird, positively denies its identity with the Vultur Harpyia 

 of Linnaeus, and the Crowned Eagle (Vultur coronatus) 

 of Jacquin, on the singular ground that those names 

 indicate a smaller bird w^ith longer and more slender legs. 

 Now Linnseus, who borrowed his original description of 

 the Harpy from Hernandez, asserts on the authority of 

 that writer that it is equal in size to a common ram ; 

 and Jacquin states his bird to have measured full two 

 feet and a half in height in its natural sitting posture, 

 and almost two inches in the diameter of its legs. It 

 is impossible to read the descriptions of Hernandez and 

 Jacquin, making in the case of the former some little 

 allowance for exaggeration, without feeling a conviction 

 that they both refer to the bird now under consideration. 

 That of the latter author in particular is admirably cha- 

 racteristic. Linnaeus originally founded his species on 

 the indication given by Hernandez : in the tenth edition 

 of his System he suggested a comparison between it 

 and a bird seen by a friend, probably a pupil, in the 

 Royal Menagerie at Madrid, w^hich there is every rea- 

 son to believe, from the description given, to have been 

 just. It was only in the twelfth edition of his immortal 

 work that he introduced a slight confusion by adding 

 to the citation from Hernandez, to the account furnished 



