The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-09-22
The Eagles, VuIturcs and Hawks.

health. This partly accounts for the poor
condition which the finest of all birds SO
often show in the geological gardens. But
the cages in which they live are ill-con-
structed, and the birds do not enjoy a
chance OF thriving as they might. 1 say this
with reason. The oldest eagle at your Zoo
is not six years old. In the splendid avi-
aries built by the late Lord Lilford, at Lii
ford Hall, near Oundle, where the birds are
looked after and the kind and quantity of
their food regulated by the late lords fall
coner. there are at this time two imperial
eagles. which have been thirty years in
captivity, and an Egyptian vulture which
has been in the collection for ~forty-three
years. These are all kept in rooted houses.
with floors of dry, deep shell gravel. [ the
Zoo the floors of the cages are OF concrete,
cold and hard. They soon become filthy,
and are then sluiced with water, so that the
eagles are often standing on wet floors,
and, therefore. get rheumatism and broken,
dirty plumage.
EAGLES AND THEIR WAYS.
There are the golden eagles, the white
tailed sea eagle. the imperial eagle and
some smaller birds. and two of the great
bearded vultures or lammergeier, which
used to haunt the Alps, and are found in all
the great mountain anges from the Pyre-
nees to the Himalaya, and also IN Africa.
Modern naturalists have studied the habits
of the lammergeier carefully, mainly In
consequence of the stories told of its fe-
rocity by the Swiss mountaineers. These
are wrongly credited to the lammerSeier.
The golden eagle, not the bearded Vulture,
was the culprit. But it is a very remarkable
bird, something half way between the vul-
lures and eagles in shape, but larger than
the eagles, and far more noble looking
than the vultures. 1t has not a "yew neck,
like the v~ulture, but with its Upright car
riage, hooked beak, black beard and fierce
crimson eye. is a very imposing creature.
From exaggerating the strength Of the lam
mergeier naturalists have gone to the other
| extreme, and rather depreciate its powers.
1t lives mainly on dead flesh, and has an
astonishing power of swallowing and di-
costing bones. 1t is said to fly high into the
air with a big bone. and to let it drop on
! the rocks and break them up. Smaller
bones it swallows whole.
Two of these birds which belonged to
Lord Lilford were kept wild in his park
for a year. They scared up to immense
heights till they were almost invisible. and
would then come down like a rocket from
the sky on the lofty roof of the hall. They
live almost entirely on ribs of beef, cut up
into lengths of about six inches. Bruce, the
| early African explorer, found the hammer
geier in A~byssinia, where it was called
Abu Dron, 1.-The father of boards" One de-
scended on the camp, and carried off IN its
feet a leg of mutton which had just been
put in an open pot to boil. The Zoo speci-
mems usually look very forlorn and shabby,
but in good plumage this is one of the
finest birds of prey.
THE IMPERIAL" EAGLES.
The Scotch golden eagles are as fine as
any in the world. The same species, found
i'm Algiers, or in hotter countries, is much
smaller and lighter built. The imperial
eagles come from southern Europe, espe-
cially Spain. They are the original of the
Roman emblem. and also of the Prussian
Order OF the Black Eagle" Those at the
Zoo are light brown, but this is because
they are young birds. They grow black as
they grow older. Their shoulders are white,
and though they are not so large as the
golden eagles they are fine, fierce-looking
birds. Two golden eagles were captured in
a curious way. They were found on the
ground fighting, and so firmly grasped in
each others talous that their discoverer
laid hands on both and walked" or
dragged them into custody. which. as they
were fighting near a public path, was only
proper.
In a recent article in the "Cornhill" it was
concluded that the maximum weight which
an eagle can carry with comfort is about
seven pounds. As this is about the weight
of a month-old child, the stories of their
having occasionally picked up babies, left
lying on the mountain pastures, and car
rie6 them for some distance, are not incred-
ible physically. The size of eagles varies as
much as their color. Mr.. Harting, in a re-
ceat letter TO The Field, quoted weights OF
golden eagles from eight pounds to twenty
six pounds. The latter seems beyond the
probable limit. But the writer has seen a
female sea eagle which could not have
weighed less than fourteen pounds. This
was in the fine private collection of eagles
made by the late Mr.. d. Meinertzhagen, at
Mottinport Abbey, on the Test. He had his
sea eagles loose in the grounds, where they
enjoyed life in their own way, killing chick
ems and cats, and on one occasion carrying
off a trout just landed from the river.
"OF ASTONISHING BEAUTY"
Fine though our European eagles are,
lHGl Il sui PO0100 AA 0N0aNg ~ CD4C "a
those of Africa and Australia. There is a
race calico the "hawk eagles" of astonish-
ing beauty. Some have c~rests; most are
blush gray and white, or barred with
white. The martial hawk eagle, the finest
of all, has it's breast spotted with black
circles the size of a signet in a ring, and all
have the fierce brow, dark eye and set, de-
termined look of the eagle race in perfec-
ton. The hawk eagles are kept in winter in
the rooms behind the cages in which the
can house, as they are natives of hot cli-
mates.
An interesting discussion was raised late
ly in The Field as to which is the largest
bird which flies. OF those mentioned as pos
sible competitors all may be seen at the
Zoo except the giant albatross. The dis
cussion LED to rather curious results.
Among the birds tabled for reference
were the swan, golden eagle, albatross,
condor, griffon vulture and pelican. 1t was
found, on looking up the weight given by
naturalists, that these were probably all
lighter than the bustard, the cock Of which
has been shot weighing as much as thirty
pounds. The largest swan weight recorded
is tweBty-six pounds. The weight of a big
condor was not given, but it is difficult TO
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