41 



NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BIRDS OF AFRICA. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF LE VAILLANT. 



EAGLES (Aeti 9 Savigny.) 



Nostrils large, and furnished at their orifice with a lobe, membranous, bulging, or plaited, 

 which arises from the upper and back part of the partition, tipper mandible very 

 thin and not toothed. Palate soft, and either uniform or raised into a simple gristly 

 fold. Under mandible abruptly slanting and roundish at the extremity. Inner 

 toe with the first joint very short, and not sensibly moveable upon the second. 



EAGLE (Aquila, Brisson.) 



Principal Characteristics Bill large, robust, almost straight at the base, flat on 



the sides with an angular ridge, and the cere smooth or slightly hairy, and some- 

 what convex. Nostrils very large, elliptical, placed across, sloping upwards, the 

 upper edge of each bulged or marked with a plait. Upper mandible dilated on the 

 edges, curving only beyond the middle. Tongue oblong, thick, fleshy, simply 

 rounded underneath, its horns smooth above, and its point very blunt, thick, and 

 entire. Under mandible with the base united and smooth. Mouth wide, being 

 cleft almost to the eyes. Shanks short, or of moderate length, and entirely clothed 

 with feathers. Toes thick, the outer united at the root by a membrane, the middle 

 one somewhat the longest. The inner and the back claws much larger and more 

 curved than the middle one ; the outer claw small and short. 



Secondary Characteristics. — Wings long, extending as far as the tip of the tail. 

 Quill Feathers, six to seven, slanting, the outer one short and not longer than the 

 seventh, the others nearly equal, the third and fifth being almost equal to the fourth, 

 which is the longest. Tail roundish. 



The species which compose this genus feed only on live animals, which they chase and 

 capture on the wing ; they will only feed upon carrion or offal when driven thereto by 

 extreme hunger. Their structure and their muscular power is so great that they 

 are able to struggle successfully against violent winds. They soar to a prodigious 

 height, and disappear from observation in the immensity of space. The organ of 

 smell is less developed in them than that of sight. Eagles, for the establishment 

 of their eyry, select the most desolate places, the loftiest trees, or the most rugged 

 rocks. Their moult is simple. — Savigny. 



Hujus character est digiti quatuor, membranis destituti ; tres scilicet antici, posticus 

 unus ; omnes circiter usque ad exortum discreti : crura ad calcareum usque plu- 

 mosa. Rostrum breve, primum rectum, dein aduncum ; caput plumosum. — 

 Brisson. 



Les Aigles ont un bee tres fort, droit a sa base, et courbe seulement vers sa pointe. 

 C'est parmi eux que se trouvent les plus grandes especes du genre, et les plus 

 puissant de tous les oiseaux de proie.* — Baron Cuvier. 



* Eagles being thus, as Baron Cuvier says, " the most powerful of all the birds of 

 prey," nothing, it appears to me, can be more preposterous than to follow the old dis- 

 tinction of Noble and Ignoble birds, first, I believe, to be met with in the curious work 

 on Falconry, written in the twelfth century by the Emperor Frederick II., Schneider's 

 learned edition of which I have now before me. The falcons and hawks were thus 

 called noble because they were employed by noblemen in falconry, and the eagles igno- 

 ble because they could not be trained to this noble sport, the very reason obviously 

 why the terms should have been reversed — J. R. 



