ornithologist's text-book. 167 



Eagles) in their native haunts; and even then it 

 must be imagined, for it cannot be accurately seen, 

 or satisfactorily described. It is very difficult 

 indeed to obtain even a tolerable portrait of one of 

 these birds ; for in order to get the Eagle in per- 

 fection into an aviary, we would require to bring 

 the mountain crag and the mountain glen along 

 with her. The bird lives, no doubt, for it is a bird 

 not easily killed, but its plumage is dull and its 

 spirit more so. The rich browns in their peculiar 

 metallic lustre, and the f pointed feathers on the 

 neck, shaded off till they arrive at the rich orange 

 at the points, and stand up when the bird is ex- 

 cited, as if they were so many scales margined with 

 gold, are not to be obtained, unless where the bird 

 has the free and unrestrained range of all its 

 powers, — can climb the pure air till it touch on the 

 region of perpetual frost, and there dash along over 

 a wide extent of country. Their feathers are tinted 

 and tempered in the fury of the blast ; and they ac- 

 quire not their full depth and lustre till they have 

 borne that for four successive winters ; and so it 

 would be vain to hope that we could either obtain 

 or preserve them in confinement. 



"The bird with which the Golden Eagle has 

 sometimes been confounded is the White-tailed, 

 or Sea E agle, which is of much more frequent oc- 

 currence; and, though the brown is not nearly so 

 rich, or the points of the neck feathers so well made 

 out, and the bird seems altogether of a laxer and 

 looser make when they are seen together, yet the 

 general colours are so much alike, especially when 

 the Golden Eagle is young and has white in the 

 tail, that, to casual observation, the one may pass 

 for the other. But upon comparison, the looser 

 form of the head, the pale beak, the naked tarsi, 

 and a comparative want of firmness and decision 

 in all the feathers, and of compactness in the body, 



