EAGLE. 



149 



dusky at the base, white at the end ; the legs of a light yellow, feathered 

 but little below the knee. The male is rather darkest in colour. 



In the young bird the bill is bluish black ; cere, sides of the mouth, 

 and orbits, yellow ; irides light hazel. The feathers on the head and 

 upper part of the neck are long and narrow, dusky brown at their ends, 

 tawny towards the base, and white at the roots ; the whole body dark 

 brown, intermixed with rust-colour; the tail and its coverts mottled 

 with yellowish white, dark and faint ash-coloured brown : the quills are 

 of a dark chocolate colour ; the shafts white towards the base ; the legs 

 strong and yellow, feathered very little below the knee, and measuring 

 two inches in circumference ; the claws black ; the inner one, which is 

 largest, is two inches long, much hooked, and nearly one inch round at 

 the base. 



The specimen from which this description is taken was killed by Sir 

 Robert Littleton's game-keeper in Shropshire, early in the spring of 

 1792, was presented to us by Lord Valentia, and is now in our museum. 

 It was accompanied by a letter from Sir Robert, the purport of which 

 was, that his servant being out shooting saw two large birds feeding on 

 the carcase of a sheep, which appeared recently killed ; that having 

 nothing but small snipe-shot with him he turned back, intending to go 

 home for larger ; that the eagles then followed him, and frequently 

 came so near that he concluded they meant either to atttack him or his 

 dogs. Suddenly losing sight of one, he judged it was very near him 

 behind, and being somewhat alarmed, turned round and shot at it in a 

 hurry ; after which the bird flew some hundred yards, and dropped. On 

 his approach it was vomiting blood ; and he killed it after a struggle of 

 half an hour. He adds, that it was the largest of the two. 



The other eagle continued in the neighbourhood some time after, 

 and roosted in the high trees of a wood belonging to Sir Robert 

 Littleton. 



Another of this species was shot in Epping Forest a few weeks 

 before. Others have been frequently killed in the New Forest ; and 

 we are informed that scarce a year passes without one being seen in that 

 part of the country ; two of which we have seen nailed up in the hall 

 of the lodge at Lyndhurst. 



John Maxwell, Esq. of Ardbraccan, in Ireland, favoured us with two 

 young birds of this species alive, taken the preceding year on a moun- 

 tainous precipice, or craggy cliff, called Slieve Donald, impending over 

 the sea, in the county of Down. That gentleman informed us that two 

 men, covered with sackcloth and armed, were lowered by ropes to the 

 area, which, with considerable difficulty, they robbed of two young, 



