l?6 F 
finny tribe: it a! fo attacks game, and, as it is large and 
Prong, it feizes and carries off geefe and hares, and even 
lambs and kids. The claws of this bird are admirably 
fitted for the purpofes to which nature feems to have de- 
ftined it ; they form an entire femici.rcle, and are there¬ 
fore retentive of the flippery prey. It is faid.byper- 
fons who obferved the fa£l, that the fea eagle catches 
fifh during the night, and the noife of its-plunging into 
tire water is heard at a great didance. This fpecies is 
found in feveral parts of Great Britain and Ireland. 
Willughby tells us, that there was an airie of them in 
Whinfi.eld park-, Weftmoreland ; and the bird foaring in 
file air with a cat in its talons, was of this kind. The 
cat’s refiflance brought both animals to the ground, when 
Barlow took them-up, as related by Walpole, and after¬ 
wards caufed the event to be engraved in the thirty,-fixth 
plate of his collefiion of birds. 11 is fometimes drowned 
in attempting to catch overgrown fifh ; not being able to 
difengage its talons, it is dragged forcibly under water. 
The Tartars entertain a notion 'that the wound of its 
claws is mortal, and therefore they dread its ; attack. 
This fpecies is frequent in North America, and was alfo 
met with in Botany-ifland by captain Cook. The fea 
eagle builds on the loftieft oaks a very broad neft, and 
lays two large , eggs that are quite round, and of a dirty 
white colour. 
iS. Falco chryfafitos, the golden eagle. Linnaeus gives 
the fpecific charadler of the golden eagle as follows: 
“ Its cere is yellowifh, its feet woolly and rudy-coloured, 
its body of a dufky variegated ferruginous orange or 
bronze, the tail black, with a waved cinereous bafe.” 
He adds, that its feet are clothed with feathers as far as 
the nails ; and that in fine weather it foars high into the 
aerial regions, but when there is an impending dorm, it 
hovers near the earth. This is efteemed an eagle of a 
noble family, and of an independent- race : hence Arif- 
totle denominates it as-ro; y^cno?, the eagle of birth. It 
is one of the larged of the genus.- The female meafures, 
from the point of the bill to the extremity of the feet, 
more than three feet and an half ; the wings, when ex¬ 
panded, extend above eight feet, and it weighs fixteen or 
eighteen pounds : the male is fmaller, as is ufual in this 
genus. In both the bill is very firong, and refembles 
bluifli horn ; the nails are black and pointed, and the one 
placed behind; which is the larged, is fometimes five 
inches long ; the eyes are large, and protected by the 
projection of the fuperior part of the orbit ; the iris is 
of a fine bright yellow, and fparkles with dazzling fire ; 
the vitreous humour is of a topaz colour ; the cryflalline 
lens, which is dry and folid, has the ludre and brilliancy of 
the diamond. This fpecies inhabits Greece, the moun¬ 
tains of Bugey in France, thofe of Silefiain Germany, the 
foreds of Dantzic, the fummits of the Carpathian moun¬ 
tains, tire Pyrenees, and the mountains of Ireland, It 
is found alfo in Ada Minor, and in Perfia. The tefli- 
mony of travellers afeertains its exidence in Arabia, in 
Mauritania, and in many other provinces of Africa and 
Afia, as far as Tartary ; but it has not been difeovered in 
Siberia, or in any other part of the north of Afia. This 
noble bird is more frequent in the warm regions than in 
the temperate countries, and it is feldom obferved to 
penetrate farther north than the latitude of fifty-five de¬ 
grees. Nor is it found in North America, though the 
common eagle is an inhabitant of that part of the globe. 
The golden eagle feems to have continued its ancient re- 
fidence, like the other animals, which,, being unable to 
fupport an intenfe cold., could not migrate into the nevy 
world. The wings and limbs of the golden eagle are re¬ 
markable for drength ; his bones are firm, and his fea¬ 
thers hard. He is of a fierce and haughty afpedt; his 
flight is rapid, and all his motions indicate vigour and ac¬ 
tivity. Of all the eagles, this fpecies is, perhaps, capa¬ 
ble of taking the higheft flights, and, on this account, 
probably, it obtained the office of melTenger to Jove in 
the fanciful mythology of the ancients. The tight of 
L C O. 
this bird is quick and piercing, the index of a bold and 
independent fpirit: fuch, at lead, are the attributes 
aferibed fo independence by the poet; who flyle's him. 
Lord of the lion-heart, and eagle-eye.” It is acCord- 
ingly by this fenfe, and not by the fmell, that the eagle 
is airedted in hunting its prey. When he has feized his 
booty, he dopshis flight, and for a moment places it upon 
the ground, as if to feel its weight, before he>bames it 
off. Although his wings are firong and expa'nfive, yet 
from the (hortnefs of his legs', he finds a difficulty in 
railing himfelf, efpecially when loaded with prey. He 
will take, with eafe, geefe, cranes, hares, afid even lambs 
and kids. When he attacks fawns and calves, it is'to 
glut himfelf with their blood upon the fpot, or to carry 
pieces of them to feed his young. His family commonly 
confids of one or two eaglets, of which it is laid that the 
mother kills the mod weakly and indrm : this condudf, 
fo entirely oppodte to the d'iSfcat'es of nature, can only 
proceed from the mod urgent neceflity. It is only when 
the parents are unable to provide for themfelves, that 
they confent to diminifh the number of their offspring, or 
to banilh them from the ned before they are fufliciently 
able to provide for themfelves. It is aflerted, that this 
fpecies will live for more than a century, and that even 
then their death is not fo much occafioned by age as by 
the exceflive incurvation of the bill, which prevents 
them from receiving food. The emperor of Thibet has. 
feveral of thefe eagles kept for the chace, which arb lo 
keen and fierce, that they feize hares, and faden upon 
bucks, does, and foxes ; and there are fome fo extremely 
bold, that they rufli impetuoufiy upon the wolf, and 
harafs him fo much, that he can be more eafily caught. 
19. Falco fulvus, the ring-tail, or common eagle. The 
fpecific character given by Linnaeus of the ring-tail eagle 
is, “ that its cere is yellow ; its feet woolly and ruft-co- 
loured ; and its tail marked with a white ring.” This' 
fpecies is not fo pure or generous as the golden eagle. It 
is compofed of two varieties; the brown eagle and the' 
black. They are both nearly of the fame fize ; they are : 
of the fame bronze colour, only fometimes of a deeper 
fhade ; in both the upper part of the head and neck is 
tinged with ferruginous, and the bafe of the large feathers 
marked with white ; the legs and feet are alike clothed ; 
in both, the iris is of a hazel colour, the cere of a bright 
yellow, the bill that of a bluifli horn, the tde$ yellow, 1 
and the talons black. The riiig 1 -tail r feagle ! is fnore nume¬ 
rous and extended than any other of the genus. It occurs 
in France, Savoy, Swiflerland, Germany, Poland, Scot¬ 
land, and even in North America, at Hudfon’s-bay, &C. 
Ellis tells us, that about Hudfon’s-bay there are many 
of the ring-tailed eagle, which is nearly of the fize of a 
turkey cock ; its crown flattened, its neck Ihort, its bread 
large, its thighs ftrong, and its wings very long and broad 
in proportion to its body ; they are blackifli behind, but 
alfo of a lighter colour on the fides; the bread is marked 
with white, the wing-feathers are black; the tail when 
clofed is white above arid below, except the tips of'the 
feathers, which are black or brown ; the thighs are co¬ 
vered with blackilh brown feathers, through Which in 
fome places the white down appears ;- the legs are covered 
to the feet with a brown or fomewhat reddidi plumage ; 
each foot has four thick ftrong toes, three before and one 
behind ; they are covered with yellow feales, and furniflied 
with nails that are exceedingly drong and (harp, and of a 
fhining black. This fpecies is-frequent in Scotland, and 
has been often recognifed in England. They generally 
build in clefts of rocks, and fometimes in tall biifliy trees. 
Willughby gives the following curious account of a ned 
of this bird in England : “In the year 1668, in the wood¬ 
lands near the river Darvvent, in the peak of Derbyfliire, 
was found an eagle’s ned made of great dicks, reding one. 
end on the edge of a rock, the other on two birch trees; 
upon which was a la/, r of.rallies, and over them a layer 
of heath, and upon the heath rufhes again ; upon which 
lay one young one and an addled egg; and by them a 
lamb. 
