208 HARPY BAGLE.

slaughtered prey, with his talons buried in the body,
and his beak crimson with gore; on our approach,
instead of quitting it, he has expanded his ample wings
over it, so as to conceal it, and assumed a menacing
attitude, as if prepared to contest the possession of it
to the utmost; and such was the ferocity and power
displayed, as to convince us that any attempt at inter-
ference, had it been practicable, would have been a most
dangerous undertaking.

The harpy eagle is a native of Guiana and other
parts of South America, where it frequents the deep
recesses of the forests, remote from the abodes of man.
Of its habits, however, in a state of nature, we. have
but little information. It is feared for its great strength
and fierceness, and is reported not to hesitate in attack-
ing individuals of the human race; nay, that instances
have been known in which persons have fallen a sacrifice,
their skulls having been fractured by the blows of
beak and talons. This may be an exaggeration, but
certainly it would be a hazardous experiment to venture
unarmed near the nest of a pair of these formidable
eagles. Hernandez states that this species not only
thus ventures to assault man, but even beasts of prey.
According to Maudruyt, it makes great destruction
amongst the sloths, which tenant the “branches of the
forest, and are ill-fitted to resist so formidable an
antagonist. It also destroys fawns, cavies, oppossums,
and other quadrupeds, which it carries to its lonely
retreat, there in solitude to satiate its appetite. Monkeys
are also to be numbered among its victims; but the
sloth is said to constitute its ordinary prey.”