Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/32

Rh From the latter circumstance, they usually prefer to strike their prey on the ground, the weight of their bodies rendering them unfitted for pursuing a flying prey through its quick and tortuous evolutions. They breed in solitude, on the inaccessible crags of precipitous mountains.

The Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos, ) is the noblest species of the whole Family, for size, strength, and courage. It has been esteemed



by nations widely separated as the emblem of majesty and power: the might of the Babylonian empire was described under this image in Sacred Prophecy; the iron legions of Rome in ancient,