1878. ] The Home of the Harpy-Eagle. 149 
and from March to the end of June the tree-tops of the “erra 
caliente resound with the screams of the ever-hungry eaglets. 
In the spring of 1875, I sent a pair of callow harpies to Messrs. 
McAllister & Co., of Vera Cruz, who took them to Philadelphia 
the next year, where one of them is now, while the other found 
its way to New York. They were the first living birds of their 
species that ever reached our Eastern States, I believe, with the ` 
exception of a wounded old hen-harpy of extraordinary size, that 
was shot and captured near Tampico by Colonel Godolitz, of the 
Austro-Mexican army, who took her to St. Louis, Mo., where 
she died soon after her arrival, either from her wounds or from 
the effects of the climate. A so-called harpy, which is kept in 
the Zodlogical Garden of Munich, I found to be a Brazilian eagle 
(Polyborus tharus), which, properly speaking, is no eagle at all, 
but like the Lemmergeyer of Switzerland, a compromise between 
the Falconide and vultures. None of the repeated attempts to 
carry the genuine harpy-eagle to Northern Europe has succeeded, 
as faras I know; owing more probably to its sensitiveness to 
cold than to its impatience of captivity, for the aguila real is a 
common pet in the farmhouses of Southern and South-western 
Mexico. 
: On the hacienda de Tuxpan, the hereditary estate of the Santa 
_ Anna family, I saw among other curiosities a tame eagle, which 
e had been kept in and near the house for upwards of twelve years, 
and had been so much indulged in all its whims that it had come 
to consider itself as a privileged member of the household. It was 
a fine specimen of the genuine crested king-eagle, and gave me 
the first opportunity to study the physical and moral peculiarities 
_of the species. 
The Harpyia destructor is well equipped for its trade. A square, 
Strong head, armed with a most viciously curved, powerful bill, 
_ that can crush a man’s finger-bones without any special effort 
_ and dislocate the neck of a squirrel-monkey by a single wrench; 
_ broad compact wings, moved by shoulder-muscles of enormous — 
Strength, and a pair of stout legs, feathered, to below the tarsi, 
a that terminate in claws of such extraordinary power and sharp- 
=- ness that they leave marks on the skin of a quadruped and even 
on the tough leather of a Mexican saddle like the bite of a wild- 
cat. The harpy is often killed for the sake of its feathers, I mean 
for the feather-bed value of its plumage, by the Mexican Indians, 
