ticulated. Toes short, the external toe connected with the middle one at the base. Clairs short, subequal. This genus is founded upon the well-known Jean le Blanc of the European continent, Falco brachydactylus of Wolff, Falco Gallicus of Gmelin, Aquilotto of the Italians. Here, Mr. Vigors observes, we find the exterior toe united to the middle by a short membrane, which is the case indeed in the greater portion of the family, while in the two latter genera the toes are all divided to the origin.

minck.) Prince Bonaparte notes it as rather rare near
Rome. Colonel Sykes notes it among the birds of the
Dukhun (Deccan).

Dr. Smith's Circaetus pectoralis, which undergoes many
changes of plumage before it arrives at maturity (see South
African Museum and Catalogue), is stated (Zool. Proc,
April, 1833) to be synonymous with Circ. thoracinus of
Cuvier.
Mr. Vigors next proceeds to the true

Aquila (of Authors).

Description.--Circaetus brachydactylus is, according to Temminck, the Falco brachydactylus of Wolff; Aquila brachydactyla of Meyer; Falco Gallicus of Gmelin; Falco hispid. Tursi plumed to the toes. leucopsis of Bechstein; Aquila leucamphoma, Borkh. Deut. Orn; Le Jean le Blanc of Buffon and the French generally; Aigle Jean le Blanc of Temminck; Fulco Terzo d' Aquila, Stor. deg. Ucc.; and Kurzzehiger-Adler of Meyer.

Beak subangular above. Nostrils rounded. Cere sub

Old Male.--Heat very large; below the eyes a space clothed with white down; summit of the head, cheeks, throat, breast, and belly, white, but variegated with a few spots of bright brown; back and coverts of the wings brown, but the origin of all the feathers of a pure white; tail square, gray-brown, barred with deeper brown, white below; tarsi long and grayish-blue, as are the toes; beak black cere bluish; iris yellow; length, two feet.

Female. Less white than the male. The head, the neck, the breast, and the belly, are marked with numerous brown spots, which are very much approximated.

Young-Upper parts darker, but the origin of the feathers pure white; throat, breast, and belly, of a redbrown, little or not at all spotted with white; bands on the tail nearly imperceptible; beak bluish; feet greyishwhite.

Food and Reproduction.-Lizards and serpents, to which it gives the preference; rarely birds and domestic poultry. The nest is built on the highest trees, and the eggs are two or three in number, of a lustrous grey, and spotless.

Mr. Vigors observes that the predominant mark of distinction in this genus is the tarsi being feathered to the toes. The culmen of the bill appears also to differ from that of the other eagles in being more angular. The species Aquila heliaca of Savigny, Falco chrysuetos, and Falco nævius of Linnæus, Falco bellicosus of Daudin, with some others lately made known to us, belong to the group which contains the most powerful birds of the family.

Example, Aquila chrysaetos, the Golden Eagle, Adler of the Germans, Eryr Melyn of the antient British.

Head and foot of Circactus brachydactylus. Locality. The great fir forests of the eastern parts of the north of Europe; not common in Germany and Switverland; rare in France; never seen in Holland. (Tem

Aquila chryss

Description. Old birds.-Summit of the head and nape | with acuminated feathers of a lively and golden-red; all the other parts of the body obscure brown, more or less blackish according to the age of the individual; inside of the thighs and feathers of the tarsus clear brown; never any white feathers among the scapulars; tail deep grey, barred with tolerable regularity with blackish-brown, and terminated at the end by a large band of that colour; beak horn-colour; iris always brown; cere and feet yellow. In this state Temminck considers it to be the Aquila fulva of Meyer; Falco niger of Gmelin; Falco fulvus and Falco Canadensis of Gmelin; Falco chrysaetos of Linnæus; L'Aigle Royal of Buffon; Le Grand Aigle, Gerard, Tab. Elem.; L'Aigle Commun and L'Aigle Royal of Cuvier; Ringtail and Golden Eagle of Latham; and Aquila Reale di Color leonato and Aquila Rapace, Stor. deg. Ucc.

Young birds of one and two years. (Ring-tail Eagle.) All the plumage of a ferruginous or clear reddish-brown, uniform on all parts of the body; lower tail-coverts whitish; inside of the thighs and feathers of the tarsus of a pure white; tail quite white from the base to three-fourths of its length, but afterwards brown to the end; internal barbs of the quills and of the caudal feathers pure white: this same colour occupies also the greatest part of all the feathers of the body from their base. In proportion as the young bird advances in age the colours of the plumage become brown, the white of the tail occupies less space, and traces of the transverse bars appear. In the third year the young bird puts on his adult plumage.

Varieties.-Partially or totally white. (Falco albus of Gmelin; Falco cygneus of Latham; L'Aigle Blanc of Brisson.)

Food and Reproduction.-The Golden Eagle preys on lambs, fawns, &c., and often on large birds. Extreme hunger will drive it to prey on carcasses.

Suffolk, Norfolk, Derbyshire, Durham, and Northumberland. Mr. Mudie, in his Feathered Tribes of the British Islands,' has named 'the higher glens of the rivers that rise on the south-east of the Grampians, the high cliff called Wallace's Craig, on the northern side of Lochlee, and Craig Muskeldie on its south side,' as localities for the Golden Eagle. Mr. Selby and his party of naturalists observed this species in Sutherlandshire in the summer of 1834. Mr. Macgillivray, in his detailed descriptions of the rapacious birds of Great Britain, has recorded his own observations of this species in the Hebrides; and other observers have seen it in the Orkney and Shetland Islands, where it is said constantly to rear its young. In a direction west of London the Golden Eagle has been obtained or seen on the coasts of Devonshire and Cornwall. In Ireland, a Ring-tailed Eagle (the young of the Golden) was seen by a party of naturalists in Connamara in the autumn of 1835; and from William Thompson, Esq., vice-president of the Natural History Society of Belfast, to whom I am indebted for a catalogue and notes of the birds of Ireland, which will be constantly referred to throughout the work, I learn that specimens of the Golden Eagle are preserved in Belfast which were obtained in the counties of Donegal and Antrim.' The age of the eagle is almost proverbial. One that died at Vienna is said to have lived in confinement 104 years. Colonel Sykes notes the Golden Eagle among the birds of the Dukhun (Deccan). His specimen differed so slightly from the European bird as not to justify its separation. (Zool. Proc., April, 1832.)

In the catalogue of birds collected on the Ganges between Calcutta and Benares, and in the Vindhyian hills between the latter place and Gurrah Mundela, on the Nerbudda, by Major James Franklin, F. R. S., &c., we find recorded an eagle, Aquila Vindhiana, with a query whether it is the Caunpoor Eagle of Latham (Zool. Proc., August, 1831), and among the Dukhun birds, Aquila bifasciata of Hardwicke and Gray. (Ind. Zool.) A whole rat was found in the stomach of one bird. A second was shot by Colonel Sykes at the dead carcass of a royal tiger, but it had not fed, for the stomach was empty. Dr. Smith stated (Zool. Proc., 1833) that the eagle from the Cape presented to the Society by the Hon. J. T. Leslie Melville, and in the Society's menagerie, was not the young of Aquila vulturina (Daudin), but of Aquila Choka (Smith), Fulco rapax (Temminck). Specimens of Aquila bellicosa and rapax are in the South African Museum, as well as of A. vulturina. The first is only found in wooded districts, preys upon small quadrupeds, and has been known to pounce upon small antelopes, and carry them off entire to its nest. A. rapax, though it principally preys on living creatures, does not wholly reject carrion, being frequently one of the first birds that approaches a dead animal. (See Catalogue of South African Museum.) Mr. Keith Abbott (Zool. Proc., June, 1834) notes among the Trebizond birds Aquila pennata, inhabiting Eastern Europe and the ad jacent parts of Asia and Africa.

Hæmatornis. (Vigors.)

Locality. The great forests in plains, and in a less degree those in the mountains of the north of Europe; very common in Sweden, in Scotland, in the Tyrol, Franconia, and Suabia; more rare in Italy and Switzerland; rather common in France, in the forest of Fontainebleau, in the mountains of Auvergne, and on the Pyrenees; rare in Holland; less common in the Oriental countries than the preceding species, i.e. Aquila heliaca of Savigny, Aquila imperialis of Temminck. (Temminck.) According to Wilson, the Golden Eagle inhabits America, and occurs from the temperate to the arctic regions, particularly in the latter, where it breeds on precipitous rocks, always preferring a mountainous country. Dr. Richardson (Fauna BorealiAmericana) mentions it with a query as breeding in the recesses of the sub-alpine country which skirts the Rocky Mountains, and as seldom seen farther to the eastward. It is,' says Dr. Richardson, held by the aborigines of America, as it is by almost every other people, to be an emblem of might and courage, and the young Indian warrior glories in his eagle plume as the most honourable ornament with which he can adorn himself. Its feathers are attached to the calumets, or smoking pipes, used by the Indians in the celebration of their solemn festivals, which has obtained for it the name of the Calumet Eagle. Indeed, so highly Mr. Vigors, at a meeting of the Zoological Society (Deare these ornaments prized, that a warrior will often cember, 1831), characterized among the species comprising exchange a valuable horse for the tail feathers of a single the Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains,' eagle.' It is the Kooo of the Cree Indians. Dr. Richard-drawn and lithographed by Mr. and Mrs. Gould, the aboveson observes that the mature British Golden Eagle has a named genus, which Mr. Vigors considered as exhibiting a darkish-brown tail and wings, blackish-brown back, clouded striking diversity of form among the Eagles. with brownish-black, and a paler and brighter-brown head. He had not seen an American one in this state, but we do not think that any reason for a doubt. Many other authors mention the eagle and ring-tails in such terms as to leave the identity of the bird almost unquestionable; and though Dr. Richardson says that it is seldom seen farther to the eastward than the Rocky Mountains, M. Audubon relates that he saw a Golden Eagle on the coast of Labrador, besides others in various parts of the United States. It inhabits Russia, Iceland, and Germany, and is said to occur in Northern Africa and Asia Minor. Mr. Yarrell, in his interesting History of British Birds, now in the course of publication, thus sums up its localities in our islands. The Golden Eagle, though occasionally seen, and some times obtained, in the southern counties of England, is more exclusively confined to Scotland, and its western and northern islands. Some years ago a specimen was killed at Bexhill, in Sussex: it has also occurred, but very rarely, in

Generic Character.-Beak rather strong, sufficiently elongated; upper mandible straight at the base, very much curved at the apex; nostrils oval, placed obliquely in the cere. Wings long, subrounded; the first quill rather short, the second and third longer, the fourth and fifth nearly equal and longest, the rest gradually decreasing. Feet rather weak, subelongated; tarsi rough, reticulated with scales; toes rather short, reticulated; claws strong. Tail sufficiently long, somewhat rounded. (Vigors.)

This group was observed to bear a near affinity to the genus Pandion in the shape of the bill, wings, and the rugose reticulated scales of the tarsi, but to differ from it in the comparative length and weakness of the legs and claws, as well as in having the nails grooved underneath, and not convex as in the latter group. To this genus belongs the Falco Bacha (Latham) of Africa, and the Manilla bird then lately described in the Proceedings (page 96), under the name of Buteo holospilus. These, from the ap

This powerful bird is the Grande Harpie d'Amerique of the French, Aquila coronada of the Spanish, Falco destructor of Daudin, Aigle destructeur of Sonnini, Grand Aigle de la Guiane of Mauduyt, Harpyia destructor of Cuvier. Mr. Vigors states with truth that much confusion has arisen as to the synonyms of this bird, and even as to the characters of the genus. Mr. Bennett has, in our opinion, well cleared this confusion away, and we therefore select his synonymy.

parent weakness of their limbs, had hitherto generally been | cere. The upper mandible, he adds, seems to have a notch ranked among the buzzards; although from the description somewhat analogous to that of the true Falcons. The type of the courageous habits of the Bacha Falcon, the only one is Falco imperialis of Shaw. well known of the group, doubts had been expressed of the propriety of ranking them with that tribe. Mr. Vigors suggested the subfamily of Eagles as a more appropriate station for them; where, united by many important characters to Pandion, they apparently led off by the length of their tarsi to the genus Limnaëtus (Memoirs of Sir S. Raffles,' Append., p. 648) and others of the long-legged Eagles. The three species of the group were exhibited, their general similarity in colour and markings pointed out, and their specific differences explained. These consist chiefly in size, Hamat. holospilus being one-third smaller than H. Bacha; while H. undulatus (which is 2 feet 7 inches in length) considerably exceeds the latter. The first is spotted all over the body, the second only on the abdomen, while the third is marked by spots on the wingcoverts, and by ocelli bearing an undulated appearance upon the abdomen, the breast also being crossed by undulating fascia. A specimen of H. undulatus was afterwards (January, 1832) exhibited from Mr. Hodgson's Nepaul collection. It agreed accurately with that which had been previously exhibited, except in size; the present specimen being about one-third longer. From this difference in size it was conjectured to be a female. Colonel Sykes identified a specimen shot in the Dukhun (Deccan) with Hamatornis Bacha. (Zool. Proc.)

Description of H. undulatus (male and female probably). Back and wings intense brown; head crested, the feathers white at the base, of a dark brown, nearly approaching to black at the end, the hind ones being margined with a light rufous band at the apex. The wing coverts near the carpal joint deep brown, marked with small white spots; quillfeathers fuscous, darker at the apex, and marked with white towards the base of the interior web; the cere, base of the beak, and legs, yellow; claws black. (Vigors, in Gould's 'Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains.')

Hæmatornis undulatus, from the work above quoted, by permission.

* *

Short-winged Eagles.

Harpyia. (Cuvier.)
Bak, above, convex. Upper mandible slightly toothed.
Nostrils semilunar, transverse. Tarsi elongated, very
strong, feathered at the base. Acrotarsia scutellated.
Claws long, very strong, acute.

Mr. Vigors, in placing Harpyia next to Aquila, observes that the former equals the latter in size and powers of body. Its tarsi, he remarks, are strong, thick, partly plumed, with scutellated acrotarsia. The nares are clongated, apparently semilunar, and placed transversely on the

and

'M. Temminck,' says the last-mentioned zoologist (Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated, vol. ii.), the latest writer on this magnificent bird, positively denies its identity with the Vultur harpyia of Linnæus, and the crowned eagle (Vultur coronatus) of Jacquin, on the singular ground that those names indicate a smaller bird with longer and more slender legs. Now Linnæus, who borrowed his original description of the harpy from Hernandez, asserts, on the authority of that writer, that it is equal in size to a common ram; Jacquin states his bird to have measured full two feet and a half in height in its natural sitting posture, and almost two inches in the diameter of its legs. It is impossible to read the descriptions of Hernandez and Jacquin, making in the case of the former some little allowance for exaggeration, without feeling a conviction that they both refer to the bird now under consideration. That of the latter author in particular is admirably characteristic. Linnæus originally founded his species on the indication given by Hernandez in the tenth edition of his 'System' he suggested a comparison between it and a bird seen by a friend, probably a pupil, in the Royal Menagerie at Madrid, which there is every reason to believe, from the description given, to have been just. It was only in the twelfth edition of his immortal work that he introduced a slight confusion by adding to the citation from Hernandez, to the account furnished by his friend, and to some particulars extracted from Jacqum's then unpublished description of his supposed species, a synonym from Marcgrave, which can alone justify M. Temminck's criticism. We restore without hesitation both these synonyms of Linnæus and Jacquin, excluding only from the twelfth edition of the Systema Nature the references to Marcgrave and his copyists. With the Vultur harpyia of Linnæus and the Vultur coronatus of Jacquin are necessarily included among the synonyms of the Harpy eagle the Falco harpyia and the Falco Jacquini of Gmelin, by whom the trivial name assigned by Jacquin to his bird was changed on account of its introduction into a genus in which that appellation was pre-occupied. In the year 1778, Mr. Dillon observed, in the Menagerie of Buen Retiro at Madrid, a species of cagle, which he imagined to be an undescript kind not taken notice of by Linnæus.' This bird, which he figures in his Travels through Spain under the name of the Crested Falcon, is evidently of the same species with the harpy, although the representation is rudely executed, and in some respects, as for example the length of the beak, grossly caricatured. We might almost be tempted to suspect that the specimen seen by him was identical with that described by Linnæus from the same menagerie twenty years before, were it not that the latter bird is expressly called Mexican, while that of Mr. Dillon is stated to have come from the Caracas. For this reason Dr. Latham introduced it into his Synopsis under the name

of the Caracca Falcon.

'Gmelin, quoting from Latham, soon after latinized its former name into Falco cristatus, and this may therefore be added to the synonyms of our bird, of which Mr. Dillon's was the first published figure. The next original describer of the Harpy Eagle was Mauduyt, who also regarded his specimens as nondescript, and gave them the name of Grand Aigle de la Guiane, from the country whence they were obtained. To these birds, which formed rart of the collection of the Paris Museum, Daudin, in his Ornithology, published in 1800, applied the scientific appellation of Falco destructor; and the names given by these two writers have been generally adopted on the colltinent of Europe as the only ones certainly applicable to the species. M. Sonnini seems doubtful whether or not to regard the two specimens described by him as distinct species, and names the one Aigle destructeur, and the