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GENUS I. FALCON. 



S P E. II. GOLDEN EAGLE. No. 2. 



Falco Chryfaetos. Lin. Syji. I. p. 1 25. 

 L'Aigle dore. BriJ. Orn. I. p. 431. 



This bird is in length three feet ; in breadth feven feet j and weighs twelve 

 pounds : the bill is a dark blue : cere yellow : eyes dark brown : the head and 

 neck rich yellow brown : general colour of the plumage is brown i with yel- 

 lowifh edges to the feathers : quills chocolate colour, with white Ihafts : tail 

 deep brown : legs yellow, feathered quite to the toes : the claws are remark- 

 ably large and hooked. 



Thefe birds are rare in England ; have been fometimes known to migrate 

 into Caernarvonfhire, and to breed on Snowdon Hills : they are alfo met with 

 now and then in Scotland j but are found in greater plenty in Ireland, where 

 they breed on the mountains. This, and the Ringtail, are very deftruftive to 

 fawns, lambs, kids, and all kinds of game, particularly in the breeding feafon,, 

 ■when they bring a vaft quantity of prey to their young. 



Smith, in his hiftory of Kerry, relates, that a poor man in that county got a> 

 comfortable fubfiftence for his family, during a fummer of famine, out of an 

 eagles neft, by robbing the eaglets of the food brought by the old ones ; whofe 

 attendance he protrafled beyond the natural time, by clipping the wings of the 

 eaglets to retard their flight. 



We have two inftances upon record in Scotland, of eagles carrying infants to. 

 their neft, as food for the young eaglets. 



