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THE WEDGE-TAILED EAGLE. 



By Walter W. Froggatt, F.L.S. 



Government Entomologist . 



Very few Australians, even those who know something about our remarkable 

 bird fauna, arc aware that the Wedge-tailed Eagle (Uroaetus audax) is the largest 

 eagle in the world. King of the Air, in size and daring, it is not an uncommon 

 thing to shoot one over seven feet six inches from tip to tip of the outspread 

 wings, and there are several more or less reliable records of measurements up to 

 eight feet six. The only larger bird of prey is the great Condor of the South 

 American Andes, which often measures nine feet, across the wings This biid is 

 simply a carrion eater: and though it sometimes attacks young lambs and kids on 

 the mountain side, its feet are too small to carry off an animal of any size. Tin- 

 popular name "Eagle-hawk" dies hard; and it will be a long time before we can 

 persuade the newspaper-writer and bush-naturalist to substitute "Wedge-tailed 

 Eagle" for the absurd and misleading "Eagle-hawk." 



The group properly known as "Eagle-Hawks." with short wings and slender 

 leg's, is confined to South America, Mexico, and the East Indies and does not 

 extend into Australasia. 



The only rival to our great eagle is the Golden Eagle, Aquila chrysaetus once 

 common in the forests and mountains of Great Britain, with an extended range 

 over the whole of Europe, Northern Asia to the Himalayas, and Northern Africa. 

 The Canadian Eagle, at one time looked upon as a distinct species, is now con- 

 sidered to be only a varietal form, so that the range is extended over the greater 

 part of North America from Alaska to California. 



This was the eagle that was known in the mythology of Greece and Rome 

 as the messenger of Jove. Cains Marius. in his second Consulship, decreed that 

 the legions of Rome only should have the eagle for their emblem. Napoleon 

 adopted it, and the Imperial Eagles of France overran Europe and the East. 

 It was probably a Golden Eagle, according to Pliny, winch caused the death of 

 the poet Aeschylus by dropping a tortoise on his head, when he went out on the 

 open plains to escape from the fate of "death falling from the sky" foretold by 

 the Soothsayers. 



A great deal of romance has been written about the Golden Eagle, and its 

 daring, and powers of carrying off its prey have been very much exaggerated. 

 Though circumstantial accounts have been given of the Golden Eagle cariying 

 off children five, and even eight, years old, both in Europe and America, modern 

 naturalists state that a three-weeks' old lamb is about as heavy a load as t lie 

 Golden Eagle can lift off the ground. Its natural food is carrion, and small 

 game, such as rabbits and birds, when carrion is not obtainable. 



The citizens of the United States never had such bad taste as to cad "the 

 Greatest Bird on Earth," the American Eagle, a Hawk; yet it is not even a true 

 minting eagle. Their National Emblem is the White-headed Sea Eagle, also 

 known as the "Bald Eagle." Haliaetus teucocephiOus. It has the whole of the 



