194 



LE VAILLANT's NATURAL HISTORY 



utter the shrillest screams. These birds appear to have a piercing eye, 

 for I have seen them descend almost from the clouds directly upon 

 fishes that were swimming upon the surface of the water, and carry off 

 some of a tolerable size in their talons. The flesh of the Blagre Eagle 

 has an insipid fishy taste, and its fat, which is exceedingly abundant, is 

 so oily, that, in skinning the bird, it penetrates all over the feathers. 

 Two individuals of this species, which I had prepared with the greatest 

 care, were totally spoiled, because the fat, in time, spread over each of 

 these birds' feathers ; so that they were as completely soaked by it, as 

 if they had been steeped in oil. 



The Blagre Eagle is of the size of our baldbuzzard ; his feathers have 

 the ruddiness of those of the kingfisher, especially those upon the belly, 

 whose beards are very close and strongly united. The head, neck, and 

 all the plumage of the fore part of the body, are of a satiny white. On 

 the top of the head, and back of the neck, the side of each feather is 

 brownish ; the mantle and small wing-coverts are of a light grey brown, 

 as well as the tail, whose tip is white. The large quills are blackish ; 

 the intermediate ones have their outer beards of the same colour as the 

 mantle ; the bill is brownish, the legs yellow, the nails black, and the 

 iris of a deep brown. 



Naturalists who, like BufTon, have a desire to diminish the number 

 of species, will not fail to class the Blagre Eagle as a mere variety of 

 our baldbuzzard ; but I, who repose no confidence in those great varia- 

 tions produced by the influence of climate, consider it as unquestion- 

 ably a second species of the same genus. 



Kolben, in his voyage to the Cape, mentioned several eagles, which, 

 he says, he saw ; but in glancing over the portion of his books respect- 

 ing birds, it may readily be perceived that he had not the slightest ac- 

 quaintance with this branch of science. The stront-vogel, which he 

 reckons as an eagle, is a large sized vulture of the Cape, and of which 

 I shall hereafter give some account. At the Cape, I never beheld the 

 osprey, nor the bird which he names the duck-eagle, because, accord- 

 ing to him, it soared to a prodigious height, and devoured ducks in the 

 air. It is absurd to advance a story of this kind, which is perfectly 

 false ; for birds of prey never feed upon their booty whilst on the wing. 

 Buffon compares, but I cannot tell why, this duck-eagle to his smalleagle; 

 there is not in fact a single word in the description of Kolben, to warrant 

 him in making the comparison. As for the other eagle, which this 

 traveller saw on the sea, devouring flying-fish, they probably were only 

 frigate-birds and albatrosses, of which he has made eagles : as for in- 



