Abstract
OF the two well-known and remarkable neotropical birds of prey, the condor is a familiar menagerie exhibit, but the harpy always rare: the specimen the London Zoological Gardens has recently received being only the third exhibited during this century, although the species was shown early in their career. Although commonly called an eagle from its large size, the harpy is in form, coloration, and habits a giant goshawk, allied to the tropico-politan group of hawk-eagles (Spizaëtus). Like these, it presents the remarkable peculiarity of showing much more white hi the immature plumage than in that of the adult; in fact, the present specimen, in its gull-like livery of white and grey, is curiously like a very different bird which is lodged next door to it in the Birds of Prey Aviary—the East Asiatic and Australasian white-bellied sea-eagle (Cuncuma leucogaster). The ruff and crest of the harpy, however, give it a character quite unique among the Falconidse, and it is this species, rather than the golden eagle, which is the analogue of the lion among beasts, especially as its feet and talons are unrivalled for size and power in the whole series of birds of prey.
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The Harpy at the London Zoo. Nature 129, 826 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/129826b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/129826b0