Page:The Natural History of Ireland vol1.djvu/35

 were obliged to take to the water for safety : it also flew at dogs, so that its liberty had to be lessened. This bird has now been for some years in the menagerie of the Royal Zoological Society, Phoenix Park, Dublin. A golden eagle, belonging to Mr. Wm. Sinclaire, was a more familiar bird than a sea eagle in Ins pos- session, but being kept in town, its docility was not much put to the proof.

Size and Weight. — The golden eagle is generally represented as larger than the sea eagle, but such specimens of the latter as I have examined, were invariably of superior size to the former, and I speak from comparison of adult individuals of the same sex. A similar remark is made in the "Fauna of Cork." Mr. Sinclaire's bird just alluded to, after having been in captivity for a year, had its wings accidentally broken, and was in consequence destroyed: its weight was 7 lbs. 14 oz. The specimen from Donegal in this gentleman's collection weighed on being captured 9 lbs : both of these birds were males. One of those killed in Glenarm Park (sex not noted) weighed 10 lbs. A large female sea eagle obtained in Donegal, and believed to be in her fourth or fifth year, weighed 14 lbs.*

Irides. — "When visiting in May, 1844, (along with my friend Wm. Ogilby, Esq.,) the magnificent menagerie at Knowsley in Lancashire, the seat of the Earl of Derby, the different coloured irides of two golden eagles attracted my attention ; one, a bird five years old, having them golden, while those of the other, whose age was not known, were of a whitish-brown hue. This is men- tioned simply as a fact, and not as anything remarkable, as the irides of birds vary in colour at different ages. But I certainly did not expect so great diversity in the colour of the irides, as was exhibited in a pair of condors at the Surrey Zoological Gar- dens, in April, 1834 ; those of the male being of a dark dull yel- low, while those of the female were of a brilliant red.

Great eagle-cage in the Zoological Gardens, Phoenix Park, Dublin. More eagles of different species being brought together here than perhaps in any other place, Mr. E. Ball, the Honorary Secre-

Mr. J.V. Stewart.