Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/612

590 51)0 E A G L E Eagle (by some called also the White-tailed and Cinereous Eagle) H tiiaetus albicilla affects chiefly the coast and neighbourhood of inland waters, living in great part on the fish and refuse that is thrown up on the shore, though it not unfrequently takes living prey, such as iambs, hares, and rabbits. On these last, indeed, young examples mostly feed when they wander southward in autumn, as they Fia. 1. Sea-Eagle. yearly do, and appear in England. The adults (fig. 1) are distinguished by their prevalent greyish-brown colour, their pale head, yellow beak, and white tail characters, however, wanting in the immature, which do not assume the perfect plumage for some three or four years. The eyry is com monly placed iu a high cliff or on an island in a lake sometimes on the ground, at others in a tree and consists of a vast mass of sticks, in the midst of which is formed a hollow lined with Luzula sylvatica (as first observed by the late Mr John Wolley) or some similar grass, and here are laid the two or three white eggs. In former days the Sea- Eagle seems to have bred in several parts of England as the Lake district, and possibly even in the Isle of Wight and on Dartmoor. This species inhabits all the northern part of the Old World from Iceland to Kamchatka, and breeds in Europe so far to the southward as Albania. In the New World, however, it is only found in Greenland, being elsewhere replaced by the White-headed or Bald Eagle, //. leucocephalus, a bird of similar habits, and the chosen emblem of the United States of America. In the far east of Asia occurs a still larger and finer Sea-Eagle, II. pelayicua, remarkable for its white thighs and upper wing- c-jverts. South-eastern Europe and India furnish a much smaller species, //. leucoryphus, which has its representative, H. leucogaster, in the Malay Archipelago and Australia, and, as allies in South Africa and Madagascar, H. vocifer and 77. vociferoides respectively. All these Eagles may be distinguished by their scaly tarsi, while the group next to be treated of have the tarsi feathered to the toes. The Golden or Mountain-Eagle, Aquila chrysaelus, is the fiecond British species. This also formerly inhabited England, and a nest, found in 1068 in the Peak of Derby shire, is well described by Willughby, in whose time it was said to breed also in the Snowdon range. It seldom if ever frequents the coast, and is more active on the wing than the Sea-Eagle, being able to take some birds as they fly, but a large part of its sustenance is the flesh of animals that die a natural death. Its eyry is generally placed and built like that of the other British species, 1 but FIG. 2. Goldeu Eagle. neighbourhood of water is not requisite. The eggs, from two to four in number, vary from a pure white to a mottled, and often highly-coloured, surface, on which appear dif ferent shades of red and purple. The adult bird (rig. 2) is of a rich, dark brown, with the elongated feathers of the neck, especially on the nape, light tawny, in which imagination sees a &quot; golden&quot; hue, and the tail marbled with brown and ashy-grey. In the young the tail is white at the base, and the neck has scarcely any tawny tint. The Golden Eagle does not occur in Iceland, but occupies suitable situations over the rest of the Paliearctic Itegion and a considerable portion of the Nearctic though the American bird has been, by some, considered a distinct species. Domesticated, it has many times been trained to take prey for its master iu Europe, and to this species is thought to belong an Eagle habitually used by the Kirgiz Tartars, who call it lleryut or tiearcoot, for the capture of antelopes, foxes, and wolves. It is carried hooded on horseback or on a perch between two men, and released when the quarry is in sight. Such a bird, when well trained, is valued, says Pallas, at the price of two camek It is quite possible, however, that more than one kind of Eagle is thus used, and the services of A. hetiaca (which is the Imperial Eagle of some writers 2 ) and of .1. mojilniL- 1 s already stated, the site clioseu varies greatly. Occasionally placed iu a niche in what passes for a perpendicular cliff to winch access could only be gained by a skilful cragsman with a rope the writer has known a nest to within ten or fifteen yards of which he rode on a pony. Two beautiful views of as many Golden Eagle s nests, drawn on the spot by Mr Wolf, are given in tbe OoOuea Wollcyana, and a fine series of eggs is also figured m the same work. - Which species may have been the traditional emblem of Kouiaii power, and the Ales Jovis, is very uncertain.