Aquila chrysaetos, Eagle, Flem. Brit. An. p. 52.
j) ,, Golden Eagle, S elby, Brit. Ornith. vol. i. p. 12.
,, ,, ,, ,, J enyns, Man. Brit. Vert. p. 80.
,, ,, ,, ,, Gould, Birds of Europe, pt. vi.
Falcofulvus, Aigle Royal, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. vol. i. p. 38.
A quila. Generic Characters,—Beak strong, of moderate length, curved
from the cere, pointed, the cutting edges nearly straight. Nostrils oval, lateral,
directed obliquely downward and backward. W ings large and long, the fourth
quill-feather the longest. Legs strong ; tarsi feathered to the junction of the
toes. Feet strong; the last phalanx of each toe covered by three large scales ;
claws strong, hooked.
I n the second edition of his Manual of the Birds of Europe,
published in 1820, M. Temminck, who is deservedly
considered one of the best authorities in Ornithology, formed
six divisions of the extensive genus Falco of Linnseus, under
names that are equivalent to the Eagles, Falcons,
Hawks, Kites, Buzzards, and Harriers of English authors.
I t will be seen that these divisions and their distinctions as
enumerated by M. Temminck are only other terms for the
genera and generic characters of other naturalists. Follow-
ing out some of the views of modern systematic writers in
Ornithology, many of the new divisions or genera will be included
in the present work. The characters upon which
these divisions are founded by their respective authors will
be given ; and by comparing these with the characters of the
genus from which the particular species has been separated,
the reader will be enabled to judge for himself of the propriety
and value of the new distinction.
Of the Diurnal Birds of Prey, constituting the family of
Falconidee, the second in the order Raptores, the Eagles
are by far the largest in size, and of great muscular power;
and although they do not possess all the characteristics which
distinguish the true Falcons, their flight is powerful, and
their habits destructive.
The Golden Eagle, though occasionally seen and sometimes
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 Bex-
hill in Sussex ; it has also occurred, but very rarely, in Suffolk,
Norfolk, Derbyshire, Durham, and Northumberland.
Mr. Mudie, in his Feathered Tribes of the British Islands,
has named u 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 1884. 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 1885 ; 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
this work, I learn that specimens of the Golden Eagle are
preserved in Belfast which were obtained in the counties of
Donegal and Antrim.
Wilson, in his American Ornithology, states that the
Golden Eagle is found in America from the temperate to
the arctic regions, particularly in the latter, breeding on high
precipitous rocks, always preferring a mountainous country.
Dr. Richardson considers that this bird is seldom seen in