CHAPTER XXXIX. 



EAGLES (Continued.) 



There are a few characteristics of the true eagles which 

 are apt to be overlooked by the bird-lover whose knowledge 

 is mainly traditional. He has heard so much, for example, 

 of the boldness, the courage, and the rapacity of the eagle 

 that he will be surprised to learn that the royal bird has to 

 give pride of place in respect to real courage to the falcons. 

 Then, again, he isapttobe misled respecting the true haunts of 

 the various branches of the eagle family, the misunderstanding 

 arising largely from the fact that the eagle does not attain to 

 really adult plumage till he is five or six years old. Between 

 his first fledging and his feathered maturity, therefore, he is 

 passing through a number of gradual changes, and it is 

 largely due to this that confusion has arisen in the descrip- 

 tions of various observers, the eagle not being provided, as 

 the horse is, with age-telling teeth. As we shall see later, 

 climate and surroundings make their mark over and above 

 these general considerations, for eagles, like men, are not a 

 little made by their environment. They all bear, however, 

 unmistakable marks of their regal lineage in the moderately 

 long, strong beak, curving from the cere, the wings large and 

 long, the generally plain coloured plumage, rarely passing out 

 of the various tints of brown, the iris of the same shades, and 

 the large muscular body and limbs with talons formidable 

 even to man and the larger mammals. 



We give, as is his due, precedence to the king of birds, 

 the Golden Eagle, Aquihr chrysactos. It is with some regret 

 that we have to acknowledge that democracy has not been 

 content to let even his title to royalty remain unchallenged. 

 Tradition counts little to the ikonoclast, be he political or 

 ornithological. And so it has come to pass that there are 

 writers and observers in these days who do not hesitate to 

 declare that the claims of the golden eagle to monarchical 

 honours are not to be substantiated. I have no doubt that 

 what they say is correct of the specimens which they have 

 observed. Just so there is at this present moment in 

 Peking a drunken, gambling, swash-buckler who was once 

 heir apparent to an empire. 



But A. chrysaetos at his best deserves the homage paid 

 him through all the ages. His better half measures a good 



