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reg lefs (haded with brown ; her ere ft is fhorfer and lighter ; 
her lower belly is while ; brown and white ftreaks are 
ciore vifihle on the plumage of the thighs; and the two 
mid-quills of the tail are not fo long. Tn the young bird, 
the grey is clouded with a (trong tint of rufous ; each leg- 
featheris edged with white ; and the lower belly is entirely 
white. The creft is ihort, and entirely of a reddifli grey ; 
the two middle tail-quills'are no longer than the others. 
The bony prominences of the wings are not then formed ; 
qven in the full-grown bird we mud lift up the wing in or¬ 
der to difcover them ; for in fact they are only apophyles 
or proceiles of the metacarpus. 
. 2. Falco grift’ardus, the griffard eagle : an African fpe- 
ctes, which Vaillant particularly defcribes; and is nearly 
as large as the golden eagle, and the legs longer. Its food 
is gazelles and hares, which it kills and carries off with 
great addrefs ; and it drives all other voracious birds from 
its haunts. Sometimes a flight of ravens and vultures 
will endeavour to carry off the prey that the griffard has 
taken; but the fierce and commanding afpeCt of this bird, 
perched upon its,booty, keeps whole legions at bay. The 
griffard is generally accompanied by his female ; they 
rarely feparate, and generally preferve the fame haunts, 
which are pretty extenfive. They place their airie, or 
neft, on the top of the higheft trees, or in clefts of the 
nioft inacceffible rocks; and the neft is not hollow, but 
flat ; and flrong enough to fupport the weight of a man. 
It ferves the lame pair for many years; being made of 
very flrong flicks, laid acrofsa forked branch, and inter¬ 
woven every way with twigs which bind them fafl toge¬ 
ther, and form the ground-work; above this is a layer of 
underwood, mofs, dried leaves, heath, rufhes, &c. On 
thisreftsa third flratum, composed of fmall pieces of dried 
wood ; and on this, without any mixture of down or fea¬ 
thers, the female lays her eggs. The neft, thus con- 
(truCted, may be four or five feet in diameter, and two in 
thicknefs, but of an irregular form. By the heaps of 
bones in various ftates of decay at the foot of a tree con¬ 
taining one of thefe nefts, and from the feveral layers of 
external furfaces, fome. judgment may be formed of the 
age of it, and how often it has been refitted for a frefli 
brood. When a convenient tree does not otter, the neft 
is placed among the rocks, andfafhioned like the former, 
except that the foundation is not then necelfary, and the 
bed of mofs is laid upon the rock itfelf ; for the eggs are 
always laid upon wood, never upon any foil fubftance. 
But the griffard always prefers, if it can conveniently be 
had, a high folitary tree, whence he may defcry at a dis¬ 
tance any approaching danger. Among the rocks, his 
habitation is more expofed to the invafion of fmall qua¬ 
drupeds in the abfence of the old ones. The female lays 
two eggs-, which are nearly round, quite white, three 
inches and fome lines in diameter. While flie is fitting, 
the male guards her and brings her food ; when the young 
can be left in the neft by themfelves, the male and female 
are fully employed in procuring food for the whole family ; 
they are exceflively voracious ; hence, as foon as theyoung 
are able to fly well, they are driven away to provide for 
themfelves. M. Vaillant caught one of thefe alive, hav¬ 
ing broken bis wing by a (hot : for the firft three days he 
would not eat ; but, when he once began to feed, there 
was no Satisfying bis voracity ; he was furious at the fight 
of flefh, if he could not immediately get at it ; fwallowed 
pieces of near a pound at once, and would not refufeany, 
though his crop was fo full that he w'as forced to difgorge, 
but he prefently fwallowed again what he had thusthrown 
out. All flefli was alike to him, even that of other birds 
of prey ; and Vaillant fed him for fome time upon one of 
his own fpecies which he had been diffeCting. 
When on the perch, their (harp piercing cry may be 
heard at a great diftance, mixed with hoarfe raucous 
notes; they fly fo high, that they are fometimes heard 
when they are quite out of fight, notwithftanding their 
fize. The head of this fpecies is rounder than in the 
golden eagle ; but the beak is not fo flrong. and lefs 
Vol. VII. No.. 417. 
, c o. 
fwelled at the curve. The feathers of the occiput, being 
fomewhat longer than the reft, form a kind o( pendent 
tuft. The tail is fquare, that is, the feathers are all of 
equal length. The legs are covered with feathers quite 
down to the toes ; thofe on the thighs are fliort, not form¬ 
ing what in falconry is called breeches. When tire bird 
is a-t reft, the wings reach to the extremity of the tail. 
The w ings of the female meafure eight feet feven inches 
from tip to tip, of the male, only feven feet five inches. 
The crop is prominent, and covered with a white fliining 
down. The bill is blue at its origin, and black at the tip. 
The toes are covered with flrong fcales of a yellowifli co¬ 
lour ; the nails are nearly black ; they are fo.much hooked 
as to form femicircles very nearly ; the hinder one is the 
largeft ; then the middle one in front. The eye is large ; 
it lies backward in the head, and is partly covered by the 
upper part of the orbit; the iris is a very blight hazel. 
The female is nearly one fourth larger than the male ; but 
the colours of the wings are not quite fo flrong. 
The griffard is found in the country of the Great Na- 
maquois ; Vaillant firft faw them towards the 28th degree 
of fouth latitude on the borders of the Rio Grande. He 
killed both the male and female, and they weighed be¬ 
tween twenty-five and thirty pounds. Hemet with them 
as he advanced towards the tropic, but never in Caffraria ; 
fo that lie thinks their abode may be fixed from the 28th 
degree of fouth latitude and the tropic, perhaps as far as 
the line, and under the torrid zone ; in fliort, in that part 
of Africa not inhabited by whites. It is very probable 
that the fpecies extended formerly as far (outh as the 
Cape ; but, in proportion as the coloni-fts cultivated the 
earth and penetrated into the defert, thefe birds, as well 
as the wild beads’, requiring a great extent of country to 
furnifh them with prey, have been obliged to retire far¬ 
ther into the interior, to avoid a more potent deftroyer 
than themfelves, civilized man. 
A (liort defcription of the colours of this fpecies will 
fuffice to diftinguifh it from the other eagles. All the un¬ 
der plumage is white. The top of the head, back and 
frdes of the neck, have feathers white at their origin and 
dark grey at the tips ; the mixture of the white and 
grey on the cheeks has an agreeable mottled appearance. 
The back and tail-coverts are brownilh ; fo is the mantle, 
but the feathers are fomewhat lighter round their edges. 
The large wing-quills are black ; the middle ones tranf- 
verfely Itriped white and black ; the laft are white at the 
tips. The tail is ftriped in the lame manner as the middle 
wing-quills. 
3. Falco Caffre, the Caffrarian eagle. This may be re¬ 
garded as a fpecies intermediate between eagles and vul¬ 
tures; it refetnbles the latter in the form of the bill and 
claws, which are lets arched and not fo (harp; but the 
head is not bare of feathers, nor are the neck-feathers 
long and unconnected as in tlie vultures. This fpecies is 
as large as the golden eagle ; the bill (tronger, the claws 
(hort, and not fo much hooked. The wings reach more 
than eight inches below the tip of the tail, which is gene¬ 
rally worn away at the end, from its retiring among the 
rocks, and alighting oftener on the'ground than the eagles 
in general. The legs quite down to tlie feet are covered 
with feathers; the tail is of the taper fbape, the outer 
feathers on eacli (ide being the (horteft. The plumage is 
entirely black, except a few brownifh reflections on the 
fmaller wing-coverts towards the pinions. Their colour, 
and their being found only in Caflraria, made Vaillant 
call them Cajfres. Tlie eye is very large, deeply funk in 
the (ocket, and the iris is maroon colour. It is a fcarce 
bird : Vaillant faw but five in his whole travels, of which 
he killed two, which were feeding on the remains of a 
buffalo he had thrown out as a bait for them. On (kinning 
them, they exhaled an intolerable (tench, which proves 
that they feed on carrion, like the vultures; like them 
alfo, they are obliged to run a few paces before they Can 
rife from the ground ; but they do not go in flocks ; no- 
more than two (the male and female) being ieen- toge- 
Y y tlier. 
