SEA EAGLE. 
35 
onths, are the constant robbers and plunderers of the 
**prey, or fish-hawk, by whose industry alone both are 
sually fed. Nor that, “ thouyli famished for want of 
he disdains to feed on carrionf since we have 
^iPselves seen the bald eagle, while seated on the dead 
^'^eass of a horse, keep a whole flock of vultures at a 
*I’®®tful distance, until be had fully sated his own 
'Ppetite. The Count has also taken great pains to 
the ridiculous opinion of Pliu}', who conceived 
Dp ospreys formed no separate race, and that they 
^^oceeded from the intermi.vture of diflerent species 
iijj *‘‘oles, the jmnng of which were not osjireys, only 
^ ®. /^“bdes ; “ which sea eagles f says he, “ breed small 
th '**’^®*> which engender great vultures, that have not 
P'^Wer of propagation.” * But, while labouring to 
,jj.'*''ite these absurdities, the Count himself, in bis belief 
- occasional intercourse between the osprey and the 
^ a eagle^ contradicts all actual observation, and one of 
1 , ® 'Oost common and fixed laws of nature; for it may 
safely asserted, that there is no habit more universal 
til ’'^‘0 feathered race, in their natural state, than 
of . ohastity of attachment, which (lonfincs the amours 
Pep , ''dduals to those of their own species only. That 
■'otl**^***®“ of nature, produced by domestication, is 
ol)s. to the ]mrpose. In no instance have I ever 
®rvad the slightest appearance of a contrary conduct. 
Help" *** those birds which never build a nest for tbem- 
a nor hatch their young, nor even pair, but live in 
general concubinage, — such as the cuckoo of 
tiipp** , > “I'ld the <!0W bunting of tlie new continent, — 
liu) no instance of a deviation from this striking 
al,,, ■ I cannot, therefore, avoid considering the opinion 
Mtb to, that “ the male osprey, by coupling 
thap J'**® female sea eagle, produces sea eagles ; and 
eao-i female osjircy, by pairing with the male sea 
gives birth to ospreys,”! or fish-hawks, as alto- 
Unsupported by facts, and contradicted by the 
* Hist. Nat. fill. X, c. 3. 
f Huftbn, vof. I. p. 80, Trans. 
