HARPIES-EAGLES. 313 



United States in relation to Agriculture,'' where tables of the food found in 

 the stomachs of the Buzzards are given, from which it appears that large 

 numbers of small mammals and insects, especially locusts, are devoured by 

 these Birds of Prey, and that very few small birds a-e captured by them, 

 though the larger kinds of Buzzards will occasionally take a Duck or a 

 Partridge. 



In the Butemiince are also contained some other forms of Buzzards, such as 

 the genera Asturiiuc and Urubitinga, the habits of which call for little special 

 notice here, though some of the latter are very handsome birds of nearly 

 pure white plumage. They are neotropical in habitat, as are also the 

 Harpies, with which the Buzzards conclude. It is generally the fashion to 

 speak of the Harpies as Eagles, instead of Buzzards, but the way in which 

 the hinder aspect of the tarsus is plated, instead of being reticulated, is 

 sufficient to show that these great birds are really members of the sub-family 

 ButeoniiicE. 



There are three genera of Harpies — Harpyhaliaetus, with one 

 species, H. coronatus, a grey bird found in South America ; Murphnus, 

 also with a single species, M. gnianeusis, found in 

 Amazonia and Guiana as far west as Panama; and The Harpy 



Tlirasaetus, with the true Harpy, 2'. luirpyia, as its type, {Thrmreius 



a species found over the greater part of Southern and hurpi/ia). 



Central America as far north as Mexico. The Harpy is 

 one of the most splendid, as it is the most powerful, of all the Birds of 

 Prey. Like the other Harpies it possesses a very long crest, which it usually 

 keeps raised, adding to its fierce appearance. It is said to kill calves and 

 animals of far greater bulk than itself, and Dr. Felix Oswald says that " in 

 the Oaxaca district in Mexico, the ' Lobo volante,' or ' Winged Wolf,' attacks 

 and kills heavy old turkey-cocks, young fawns, sloths, full-grown foxes and 

 badgers, middle-sized pigs, and even the black Sapajou monkey {Ateles 

 paniscus). The nest is built in the highest forest-trees, especially the 

 Adcmsoiiia and the Pinus halsamifeni. The more inaccessible rocks of the 

 foot-hills are also commonly chosen for a breeding place, and it is not easy to 

 distinguish the compactly-built eyrie on the highest branches of a wild fig 

 tree from the dark-coloured clusters of the Mexican mistletoe ( Viscum ruhrum) 

 which are seen in the same tree-tops. The process of incubation is generally 

 finished by the middle of March, if not sooner, and from that time to the end 

 of June the rapacity of the old birds is the terror of the tropical fauna, for 

 their hunting expeditions, which later in the yeir are restricted to the early 

 morning hours, now occupy them the larger part of the day." 



In this sub-family the tibio-tarsus is much longer than the tarso- 

 metatarsus, aa it was in the Buteonitue, but in all the Eagles the hinder aspect 

 of the tarsus is reticulated, not plated. The bill is 

 festooned but not toothed, as it is in the Falcons, which The Eagles.— 

 follow later. There are two genera with wedge-shaped Sub-family 



tails, Oypaetus and Uroaetus. In the former s<enus is Aquibnm. 



found the species generally called the Bearded " Vulture," 

 on account of the tuft of bristly feathers which is grown on its chin. 

 The Bearded Eagle {Gypactns barhatu.-^) extends from Southern Europe 

 throughout Central Asia to the Himalayas, but has become very rare, 

 if, indeed, not wholly extinct, in Switzerland, where it was once a 

 well-known bird. The L^emmergeier, as it is also called, is still found in 

 some of the other mountain ranges of Southern Europe, and in the 



