34 
CRESTED, OR HARPY EAGLE. 
and haunts rivers and lakes for the sake of the finny prey which they contain. The color of 
this bird is nearly white, diversified with a broad band of brown that passes over the back, 
wings, and the space around the eyes, and is prolonged into a belt that surrounds the neck, so 
that the bird looks as if it had been wrapped in a brown mantle fastened under the throat. The 
tail is banded alternately with brown and white. The wings of this species are not very long, 
and the beak is short. The tarsus is also short, and is covered in part with net-like markings. 
The head is surmounted with a crest, composed of long, narrow feathers, which pass over the 
head and droop gracefully until they reach the back of the neck. 
A small number of the Falconidse are remarkable for their long tarsi, feathered below 
the heel, their long, even tail, and the union of the outer claws by a membranous skin. The 
Jean le Blanc Eagle, so called 
on account of the generally white 
color of its plumage, is a good 
example of this genus, which in- 
cludes the bacha, the cheela, and 
other so-called Eagles. 
The color of the Jean le Blanc 
Eagle is white, speckled with 
brown spots, and diversified on 
the back with brown. The white, 
however, predominates largely, 
and even in the back and wings, 
the bases of the feathers are 
white. The tail is darker than 
the rest of the plumage, being 
of a light gray-brown, barred 
with dark brown. The long tarsi 
and toes are blue, and the claws 
are black. The length of the 
bird is about thirty inches, but 
the expanse of its wings is not 
so proportionally great as in the 
osprey. As the birds of this 
genus possess several character- 
istics of the Eagles, and others 
of the ospreys, they are supposed 
with justice to form a connecting 
link between the genera Aquila 
and Pandion. The Jean le Blanc 
is spread over considerable por- 
tions of Asia and Europe. 
The food of this bird con- 
sists chiefly of snakes, frogs, rats, mice, and insects, and it is generally found haunting the 
low forest lands where such creatures most abound. Its nest is of considerable dimensions, 
and is generally built on the summit of some lofty tree. The eggs are either two or three in 
number, and are of a pure, spotless gray. 
JEAN LE BLANC EAGLE. ( CircaStus gallicus.) 
After many attempts to associate the Crested, or Harpy Eagle, with any other bird in 
some acknowledged genus, systematic zoologists have at last been obliged to consider it a 
family or single genus in itself, under the appropriate title of Thrasaetus, or Courageous 
Eagle. 
The most obvious external characteristic which serve to distinguish this species is the 
manner in which the feathers of the head and neck are arranged, so as to form a bold ruff or 
