Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/30

Rh in fat or butter; and by decreasing the fat gradually, it at last ate bread alone, and seemed to thrive as well as when fed with meat. . . . . Spallanzani attempted in vain to make an Eagle eat bread by itself; but by enclosing the bread in meat, so as to deceive the Eagle, the bread was swallowed and digested in the stomach."



The characters of this Family may be thus expressed:—The head is wholly clothed with feathers, except the cere at the base of the beak. The beak is strong, hooked, and, in the more typical genera, furnished with a sharp projection or tooth on each side. The nostrils are more or less rounded, and pierced in the sides of the cere. The eyebrow, in most instances, projects and overhangs the eye; imparting an expression of sternness to the countenance. The outer toe is to some extent connected with the middle toe, and all are armed with strong, very sharp, and much curved talons, the points of which are preserved from injury by a mechanism for elevating them from the surface on which the bird rests; a process analogous to the sheathing of the claws in the Felidæ.

In general the female is much larger than the

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