SEA EAGLE. 
35 
months, are the constant robbers and plunderers of the 
osprey, or fish-hawk, by whose industry alone both are 
usually fed. Nor that, “ though famished for want of 
prey , he disdains to feed on carrion f since we have 
Ourselves seen the bald eagle, while seated on the dead 
carcass of a horse, keep a whole flock of vultures at a 
respectful distance, until he had fully sated his own 
appetite. The Count has also taken great pains to 
expose the ridiculous opinion of Pliny, who conceived 
that the ospreys formed no separate race, and that they 
proceeded from the intermixture of different species 
of eagles, the young of which were not ospreys, only 
sea eagles ; “ which sea. eagles says he, “ breed small 
vultures, which engender great vultures, that have not 
the power of propagation” * But, while labouring to 
confute these absurdities, the Count himself, in liis belief 
of an occasional intercourse between the osprey and the 
sea eagle, contradicts all actual observation, and one of 
the most common and fixed laws of nature ; for it may 
be safely asserted, that there is no habit more universal 
among the feathered race, in their natural state, than 
that chastity of attachment, which confines the amours 
of individuals to those of their own species only. That 
perversion of nature, produced by domestication, is 
nothing to the purpose. In no instance have I ever 
observed the slightest appearance of a contrary conduct. 
Even in those birds which never build a nest for them- 
selves, nor hatch their young, nor even pair, but live in 
a state of general concubinage, — such as the cuckoo of 
the old, and the cow bunting of the new continent,— 
there is no instance of a deviation from this striking 
habit. I cannot, therefore, avoid considering the opinion 
above alluded to, that “ the male osprey, by coupling 
with the female sea eagle, produces sea eagles ; and 
that the female osprey, by pairing with the male sea 
eagle, gives birth to ospreys,” f or fish-hawks, as alto- 
gether unsupported by facts, and contradicted by the 
* Mist. Nat. lib. x, c. 3. 
f Buffon, vol. I. p. 80, Trans. 
