THE CARACARA EAGLE. 
23 
in the colours of the bill, legs, eyes, and even the plumage of birds, when 
looking on imitations which I was aware were taken from stuffed specimens, 
and which I well knew could not be accurate ! The skin , when the bird 
was quite recent, was of a bright yellow. The bird was extremely lousy. 
Its stomach contained the remains of a bullfrog, numerous hard-shelled 
worms, and a quantity of horse and deer-hair. The skin was saved with 
great difficulty, and its plumage had entirely lost its original lightness of 
colouring. The deep red of the fleshy parts of the head had assumed a 
purplish livid hue, and the spoil scarcely resembled the coat of the living 
Eagle. 
I made a double drawing of this individual, for the purpose of shewing 
all its feathers, which I hope will be found to be accurately represented. 
Since the period when I obtained the specimen above mentioned, I have 
seen several others, in which no remarkable differences were observed 
between the sexes, or in the general colouring. My friend Dr. Benjamin 
Strobel, of Charleston, South Carolina, who has resided on the west coast 
of Florida, procured several individuals for the Reverend John Bachman, 
and informed me that the species undoubtedly breeds in that part of the 
country, but I have never seen its nest. It has never been seen on any of the 
Keys along the eastern coast of that peninsula ; and I am not aware that 
it has been observed any where to the eastward of the Capes of Florida. 
The most remarkable difference with respect to habits, between these 
birds and the American Vultures, is the power which they possess of 
carrying their prey in their talons. They often walk about, and in the 
water, in search of food, and now and then will seize on a frog or a very 
young alligator with their claws, and drag it to the shore. Like the Vultures, 
they frequently spread their wings towards the sun, or in the breeze, and 
their mode of walking also resembles that of the Turkey Buzzard. 
Caracara Eagle, Polyborus vulgaris , Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. ii. p. 350 ; vol. v. p. 351 . 
Adult Male. 
Bill rather long, very deep, much compressed, cerate for one-half of its 
length ; upper mandible with the dorsal outline nearly straight, but declinate 
for half its length, curved in the remaining part, the ridge narrow, the sides 
flat and sloping, the sharp edges slightly undulated, the tip declinate, trigonal ; 
lower mandible with the sides nearly erect, the back rounded, the tip narrow, 
and obliquely rounded. Nostrils oblong, oblique, in the fore and upper parts 
of the cere. Head of moderate size, flattened ; neck rather short, body rather 
slender. Feet rather long and slender ; tarsus rounded, covered all round 
with hexagonal scales, the anterior much larger, and the five lower broad 
