12 . NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[4.] 1. Aquila Chrysaetos? The Golden Eagle. 



Genus. Aquila Antiquorum. Cuvier. 



Golden Eagle. Pens. Arct Zool., i., p. 225, No. 86. 



White Eagle. Idem, i , p. 229, No. 90. 



Falco fulvus. Lath. Ind;, i., p. 10, sp. 4. 



Falco candidus. Idem, i., p. 14, sp. 17. ? variety. » 



The Calumet Eagle. Lewis & Clark. Journ,, S(C, iii., p. 55, No. 20. 



Ring-tail Eagle. Wilson. Am. Orn. vii., p. 13, pi. 55, f. 1. Young. 



Falco fulvus. Temminck. i., p. 38. Buonap. Syn., p. 24. 



Live specimen in the Zoological Gardens brought from the Rocky Mountains. 



Eagle, No. 31. Hudson's Bay Company's Museum. 



Koeoo. Cree Indians. 



This powerful bird breeds in the recesses of the sub-alpine country which skirts 

 the Rocky Mountains, and is seldom seen farther to the eastward. Tt is held by 

 the aborigines of America, as it is by almost every other people, to be an emblem 

 of might and courage ; and the young Indian warrior glories in his eagle plume 

 as the most honourable ornament with which he can adorn himself. Its feathers 

 are attached to the calumets, or smoking pipes, used by the Indians in the celebra- 

 tion of their solemn festivals, which has obtained for it the name of the Calumet 

 Eagle. Indeed, so highly are these ornaments prized, that a warrior will often 

 exchange a valuable horse for the tail feathers of a single eagle *. The strength 

 of vision of this bird must almost exceed conception, for it can discover its prey 

 and pounce upon it from a height at which it is itself, with its expanded wings, 

 scarcely visible to the human eye. When looking for its prey, it sails in large 

 circles, with its tail spread out, but with little motion of its wings ; and it often 

 soars aloft in a spiral manner, its gyrations becoming gradually less and less per- 

 ceptible, until it dwindles to a mere speck, and is at length entirely lost to the 

 view. A story is current, on the plains of the Saskatchewan, of a half-breed 

 Indian, who was vaunting his prowess before a band of his countrymen, and 

 wishing to impress them with a belief of his supernatural powers. In the midst of 

 his harangue an Eagle was observed suspended as it were in the air directly over 

 his head, upon which, pointing aloft with his dagger, which glistened brightly in the 

 sun, he called upon the royal bird to come down. To his own amazement, no less 

 than to the consternation of the surrounding Indians, the Eagle seemed to obey 



* Lewis and Clark inform us that the Ricaras Indians have domesticated the Eagle, in many instances, for the pur- 

 pose of procuring its plumage. 



