122 GOLDEN EAGLE. Clafs IL 



and there are inftances, though rare, of their having 

 bred in Snoiz'don hills-, from whence fome writers 

 give that tradl the name of Creigiau'r eryrau, or the 

 eagle rocks j others that of Creigiau'r eira, or the 

 fnowy rocks : the latter feems the more natural epi- 

 thet : it bein^ more reafonable to imao-ine that thofe 

 mountains, like Niphates in Armenia^ and hnaus * in 

 ■Tartarj^ derived their name from the circumftance of 

 being covered with fnow, vvhich is fure to befal them 

 near the half of every year, than from the acci- 

 dental appearance of a bird on them, once only in fe- 

 veral years. 

 Defer. The golden eagle weighs about twelve pounds ; its 

 length is three feet ; the extent of its wings feven feet 

 four inches; the bill is three inches long, and of a 

 deep blue color ; the cere is yellow ; the irides of a 

 hazel color : the fight and fenfe of fmelling are very 

 acute: her eyes heboid afar off -^ \ the head and neck 

 are cloathed with narrow fharp pointed feathers, and 

 of a deep brown color, bordered with tawny; but 

 thofe on the crov/n of the head, in very old birds turn 

 grey. The whole body, above as well as beneath, is 

 of a dark brown ; and the feathers on the back, are 

 finely clouded with a deeper fhade of the fame : the 

 wings, when clofed, reach to the end of the tail : the 

 quil feathers are of a chocolate color, the fhafts 

 white : the tail is of a deep brown, irregularly barred 

 and blotched with an obfcure a(h color, and ufually 



* /»;««:— —incolarum lingua nivofum fignificante. Plin. lib. 6. 

 r. 21. 



t 7°^ 39j 27. V/here the natural biftory of ths eagle is finely- 

 drawn up. 



white 



