F. sparverius, Lin. &c.; Little Falcon, St. Domingo Falcon, New-York Merlin, American Merlin, &c. Fer ruginous, with black and blue-grey variegations, and white throat: the female coloured like the female kestril. An elegant species, in general appearance closely allied to the preceding, but of considerably smaller size, and the male more diversified in its markings. Like others of its tribe, it is extremely liable to assume different colourings at different stages of its growth, and has thus given rise to several imaginary species. It is a native of North and South America, and of the West Indies. In the north of the United States, where it is called little sparrow-hawk, it is much more rare than in the south ; and it is particu larly abundant in St. Domingo, where the facility with which it procures small lizards, its favourite food, seems to have rendered it less active and more sociable than on the continent ; for in the warmer latitude of the island it occurs in flocks; and the male manifests much attachment to its mate. The female makes its nest on the top or in the hollow of trees, or in the galleries of churches, and lays from two to four eggs, which are white, and spotted with rufous.
Ignoble birds of prey are so denominated, because they ware not easily trained to falconry. They are a very nume: roux tribe, distinguished by the length of the fourth quill, and the shortness of the first, so that the wing appeals as if obliquely truncated. Their beak is destitute of a lateral tooth near the point, and has only a slight projection in the middle of its length.
Eagles, properly so called.
Beak strong, of considerable length, and hooked to wards the extremity. Legs strong and nervous, and covered with leathers, or naked ; toes robust, and armed with powerful and very crooked claws. Their flight is elevated and rapid, and their courage yields to that of no other bird. Some of them prey on the smaller quadru pec;s and birds, whilst others pounce on fishes, and some attack only rt.ptiles and insects. Although it is commonly alleged that they never drink, and it is certain that they can dispense with water for a great length of time, yet when it is presented to them they plunge and bathe in it, and even drink of it like other birds. According to Spal lanzani they have a very decided antipathy to bread, and refuse to eat it even after long fasting ; but when it is forced into their stomach, it is digested like any other ali ment.
F. imperials, Bechst. Tcmm.; F. mojelnick, Gmel. Aquila heliaca, Savig. Imperial Eagle. Crown of the head and occiput furnished with acuminate sub-rufous feathers, edged with bright rufous, of a very dark glossy brown above, of a very dusky brown beneath, with the ex ception of the abdomen, which is yellowish rufous ; some of the scapular feathers always pure white.
The imperial eagle is diffused over Hungary, Dalma tia, and Turkey, and is more common in the eastern and southern parts of the world than in any other quarter, abounding in Egypt and on the coast of Barbary ; but it is rare in the centre of Europe. It preferably resides in the extensive forests of hilly countries, preying on stags, roe bucks, foxes, and other mainntiferous animals, and often on large birds. The female breeds in lofty trees or ele vated rocks, and lays three or four eggs, of a dirty white. The cry of this species is loud and sonorous, owing, it is alleged, to the very solid and approximated rings of which the wind-pipe is composed.
F. fulvlts, Gmel. Tem. &c.; F. niger, Gmel. Lath.; F. chryscrtos, Lin. &c. (the female ;) F. aquila, and F. com munis, of different authors. Royal or Common Eagle ; Ring-tail Eagle of Willoughby; White-tail Eagle of Ed wards ; Ring-tailand Golden Eagle of Latham ; Black Ea gle of Pennant, &c. Crown of the head and nape with acuminate feathers, of a bright rufous and golden tinge ; all the other parts of the body of an obscure brown, more or less blackish, according to age. The male is about three feet long, and the female three feet and a half, the wings stretching to between seven and eight feet.
The royal eagle is pretty generally scattered over the world ; for it haunts the high mountain ranges of Europe, Asia Minor, Tartary, the north of Africa, and the promi nent crests of Atlas, Persia, Arabia, Russia, Siberia, Kamtschatka, Hudson's Bay, Carolina, Louisiana, &e. It occurs in the mountains of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, but not so commonly as is generally believed ; for the osprey is often mistaken for it ; and in some dis tricts ev,..ry large eagle is called the golden, or eagle of the sun. An overgrown specimen of the present kind was shot at Warkworth, whose out-stretched wings measured eleven feet three inches.
In a clear sky, the royal eagle soars to a great height, but he flies lower in cloudy weather. He rarely quits
the mountains to descend into the plains; and his muscu: Jar force enables him to encounter the most violent winds. AVhen Ramond had reached the summit of Mount Perdu, the highest of the Pyrenees, he perceived no living crea ture but an eagle, which passed above him, flying with in conceivable rapidity in direct opposition to a furious wind from south-west. When far aloft, and no longer discer nible by the human eye, its cry, which in that situation has been compared to the squeaking of a puppy, may still be heard; and such is the wonderful acuteness of its sight, that from the same elevation it will mark a hare, or even a smaller animal, and dart down on it with unerring aim. The male and female usually hunt together, and the moun taineers allege, that the one beats the bushes, and that the other pursues the started game. Each pair live in an in sulated state, establishing their quarters on some high and precipitous cliff, at a respectful distance from others of the same species, and occasionally interrupting their si lence by a sharp, piercing, and lugubrious cry. They are extremely tenacious of life, whence probably originat ed the eastern notion, that they possessed the power of renewing their youth. Keysler alludes to an individual, which lived a hundred and four years at Vienna, though in a state of confinement. Nor is it less remarkable for enduring abstinence, especially when deprived of exer cise; for one, taken from a fox-trap, refused food for five weeks, when it was killed. Redi likewise informs us that he kept two alive, the one for twenty-eight, and the other for twenty-one days, without food. In old age, individuals of this species become more or less hoary, or partially of a pure white ; and similar changes are induced by disease and protracted captivity or hunger. From their solitary and domineering habits they keep all other birds of prey at a distance from their haunts, and delight in combats and rapine ; but they seem to be averse to carrion, and to disdain the insults of weak and petty animals, attacking and bearing away lambs, kids, young gazelles, &c. Their strength chiefly resides in the beak, talons, and wings ; and there is scarcely any animal that is a match for them, as they are capable of giving the most terrible annoyance without much danger to themselves, insomuch that a sin gle flap of their wing has struck a man dead in an instant. Unless taken when quite young, they are scarcely to be tamed. In the depth of winter they sometimes descend from the mountains and take refuge in the forests, as in those of Orleans and Fontainebleau. When they regale on their mangled prey, a dirty bluish liquor, secreted from peculiar glands, has been observed to ooze from the nos trils, and, flowing along the beak, to enter the mouth, where it may possibly assist in preparing the due concoc tion of the food. It would appear, however, from the ex periments of Spallanzani, that their breath is not fetid. In Scotland they are still destructive of deer, which they seize between the horns, and soon subdue by incessantly beating the harassed quadruped with their wings. In the island of Rume, according to Pennant, they have nearly extirpated the stags : and in Shetland they are general plunderers, robbing the rock-birds, especially gulls and cormorants, of their young. In the Orkneys, the nest of a pair has been observed on the same spot from time im memorial. Another pair seem to have once bred in Tint holm, one of the smallest of the Faroe islands, according to the testimony of Landt, who relates the following dis tressing. incident. An eagle one day darted on an infant, who was lying at a little distance from its mother, and carried it to its nest, which was placed on a ruck so steep towards the summit, that the boldest bird-catchers had never ventured to climb it. The mother, however, con trived to ascend it ; but she arrived too late, for the child was dead, and its eyes torn out. Again, in the year 1737, in the parish of Norderhougs, in Norway, a boy, upwards of two years of age, was running from the house to his parents, who were at work in the fields at no great dis tance, when an eagle pounced on him, and carried him off in their sight, in spite of all their screams and efforts. Anderson, in his History of Iceland, asserts, that in that island children of four or live years of age have experien ced the same cruel fate ; and Ray mentions, that in one of the Orkneys an infant of a year old was seized in the talons of an eagle, and conveyed about four miles to its eyry ; while the mother, knowing the spot, pursued the bird, found her child in the nest, and took it home unhurt.