File:A history of British birds. By the Rev. F.O. Morris (1862) (14752189135).jpg

Identifier: historyofbritish01morr (find matches)
Title: A history of British birds. By the Rev. F.O. Morris ..
Year: 1862 (1860s)
Authors: Morris, F. O. (Francis Orpen), 1810-1893
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London, Groombridge and Sons
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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and assumes many elegant and graceful attitudes. Its properhabitat is near the sea-shore, or fresh-water lakes surroundedby precipitous mountains: it is not however confined exclusivelyto coast localities, for it sometimes has been met with inland—in one instance as much as forty miles from the sea, andit occasionally also resorts to the sides of streams, in quest ofsalmon, trout, and other fish. This species is of very frequent occurrence in many parts ofthe old world, and is in this country far more numerous than theGolden Eagle. It is the most abundant in the northern partsof Ireland and Scotland, and in the Orkney and Shetland Islands,but has also been repeatedly met with in England. It is mostfrequently seen in Scotland, north of Aberdeen and the Ordof Caithness, and but rarely south of St. Abbs Head. In flight, the feet are drawn close up, and the neck doubledback, so that the head appears as it were to grow from theshoulders. In this attitude it beats its hunting grounds, the
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Ivy^ \ 1^ iMl -> ERNE, ERNE. 7 cliffs, or mountain sides, the open moors, or tlie shores of theocean or lake, sailing with a gentle and hardly perceptiblemotion of its wings, like the Buzzard, or, if flying off in astraight line to a distance, with regular flappings like a Raven.When at rest, in its ordinary position, it sits with its wingsdrooped, like the Cormorants and Vultures, with the latter ofwhich it was indeed classed by Linnaeus, and it will be per-ceived that I have placed it next to those birds for the likeand other reasons. It is not so easy on the wing as the GoldenEagle, though swift and strong in flight on occasion, and oftenextremely graceful. It rises with difficulty from a level surface,along which it flaps for some distance before it can do so,and may thus sometimes be brought within gun-shot, byrunning or riding down quickly upon it. It is described asbeing therefore for this reason seldom met with in such asituation at rest, but as then preferring some project

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