20 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



BRITISH BIRDS; THEIR 

 NESTS AND EGGS. 



S. L. Mosley. 



Genus II., Aquila. 



Aquila. — The Latin word for Eagle. 



Only one representative of this genus inhab- 

 its this country. It is of large size. The bill 

 is not so large as in the last genus, its habits 

 not so vulturine. It may at once be distin- 

 guished by the tarsus being clothed with 

 feathers. 



Another species having feathered tarsi has 

 occurred in Britain, though very rarely ; it 

 may be distinguished by the wing covets and 

 the tertaries, each having a white spot at the 

 tip. It is called the Spotted Eagle, and is 

 smaller than our species. 



II.— GOLDEN EAGLE. 

 Aquila crysaetos, Linn. 

 Eryr Melyn (Ancient Britain). 



Chrysaetos. — From Chr.tsos (Gr.), gold, 

 and aetos (Gr.), an Eagle. So called from 

 the golden color of the feathers on the neck of 

 a mature bird. 



Size. — Male, length about three feet from 

 bill to tip of tail, and eight feet from tip to tip 

 of expanded wings. The female is larger, 

 specimens having been obtained which 

 measured ten or eleven feet in expanse. 



Plumage. — The Adult Bird has the 

 bill slate blue*; cere, bright yellow; eye 

 reddish brown, the head and neck is covered 

 with long-pointed feathers of a bright golden 

 brown ; rest of the body brown, darker 

 on the back, the primary wing feathers 

 inclining to blackish. The tail has the middle 

 feathers the longest, and is bluish grey with 

 two bands of lighter color. The legs are 



• There is an old superstition in the Highlands and 

 perhaps elsewhere, that the Golden Eagle's longevity is 

 owing to its power of canting and renewing its heak. 

 In a communication to " Land and Water," from Mr. 

 frank Buckland, a quotation was made from an old 

 Psalter, of date 1(533, wherein the passage " Who satis- 

 fleth thy mouth with good things, so that thv youth is 

 renewed like the eagle's," (Psalm cm, 5,) was rendered . 

 " That fill'd with goodenesse thy desire, 



And did prolong thy youth ; 

 Like as the eagle casts her bill, 

 Whereby her age renew'th." 



feathered down to the toes, by which it may at 

 once be distinguished from the last species. 

 Toes bright yellow. (PI. 2, Fig. 1.) 



Immature birds of one or two years old 

 have not the bright golden hue on the neck 

 and nape ; the eye is darker, and the tail has 

 the upper part of the feathers white. In this 

 state of plumage it is often confounded with 

 the young of the White-tailed Eagle, but they 

 may at once be separated by the present 

 species having feathered legs. (PI. 2, Fig. 2.) 



The Young are at first covered with a 

 silvery down. 



Varieties of this species have occurred 

 pure white, but they, or indeed any striking 

 varieties, are extremely rare. 



Food- — The food of the Golden Eagle 

 consists chiefly of such birds, as ducks, grouse, 

 &c, and animals, such as fawns, hares, rab- 

 bits, and young lambs. Even sheep are some, 

 times attacked and killed. As many as 300 

 skeletons of ducks, and 40 of hares and rabbits 

 are said to have been found about one of 

 their nests in one of the German forests. This 

 species like the rest of the family prefers to kill 

 its own meat, only feeding upon carrion when 

 forced to do so by hunger. The Golden Eagle 

 is said, at times, to have taken up young 

 children and carried them away to its eyrie or 

 nest. 



In Confinement it should be fed upon raw 

 fresh meat, or small living animals. It 

 should be placed in a roomy compartment 

 with some large dead branches for it to perch 

 upon, otherwise it will soon lose much of its 

 beauty of plumage. 



Habitat. — In former times the Golden 

 Eagle was not a rare bird in Britain, and up 

 to the beginning of the present century, it 

 used to breed not unfrequently in Cumber - 

 | land and Westmorland, and even in Derby- 

 shire. Even now stray specimens are some- 

 times killed in England, several having been 

 killed at Flamborough Head, and other 

 places. In the south of England it is very 

 rare, most of the so-called Golden Eagles 

 killed in the south being the young of the 



