GREY EAGLE 49 



Argentine country this is the commonest Eagle, and 

 I found it very abundant in Patagonia. D'Orbigny 

 describes it with his usual prolixity — ^pardonably so 

 in this case, however, the bird being one of the very 

 few species with which he appears to have become 

 familiar from personal observation. He says that it 

 is a wary bird ; pairs for life, the male and female 

 never being found far apart ; and that it soars iti 

 circles with a flight resembling that of a Vulture ; 

 and that the form of its broad blunt wings increases 

 its resemblance to that bird. Cavies and small 

 mammals are its usual prey ; and in the autumn 

 and winter, when the Pigeons congregate in large 

 numbers, it follows their movements. During the 

 Pigeon-season he has counted as many as thirty 

 Eagles in the course of a three leagues' ride ; and he 

 has frequently seen an Eagle swoop down into a cloud 

 of Pigeons, and invariably reappear with one strug- 

 gling in its talons. It is seldom found far from the 

 shores of the sea or of some large river ; and on the 

 Atlantic coast, in Patagonia, it soars above the sands 

 at ebb-tide, looking out for stranded fish, carcases 

 of seals, and other animal food left by the retiring 

 waters, and quarrels with Gindors and Vultures over 

 the refuse, even when it is quite putrid. It acts as 

 a weather prognostic, and before a storm is seen to 

 rise in circles to a vast height in the air, uttering 

 piercing screams, which may be heard after it has 

 quite disappeared from sight. 



The nest of this species is usually built on the 

 ledge of an inaccessible rock or precipice, but not 



