FABLE AND FOLKLORE 71 



he nestles among his warm fledglings, till, starting into perspi- 

 ration, he throws off his age with his feathers. That his re- 

 juvenescence may be complete, as his sustenance must be of 

 youth, he makes prey of his young, feeding on the nestlings 

 that have warmed him. He is clothed anew and youth is again 

 his." 



Cruden's Concordance B1 to the Bible, first published in 

 1737, contains under "Eagle" a fine lot of old Semitic 

 misinformation as to the habits of eagles, which Cruden 

 gives his clerical readers apparently in complete faith and 

 as profitable explanations of the biblical passages in which 

 that bird is mentioned. Allow me to quote some of these 

 as an addition to our collection, for I find them retained 

 without comment in the latest edition of this otherwise 

 admirable work: 



It is said that when an eagle sees its young ones so well- 

 grown, as to venture upon flying, it hovers over their nest, 

 flutters with its wings, and excites them to imitate it, and take 

 their flight, and when it sees them weary or fearful it takes 

 them upon its back, and carries them so, that the fowlers can- 

 not hurt the young without piercing through the body of the 

 old one. ... It is of great courage, so as to set on harts and 

 great beasts. And has no less subtility in taking them; for hav- 

 ing filled its wings with sand and dust, it sitteth on their horns, 

 and by its wings shaketh it in their eyes, whereby they become 

 an easy prey. ... It goeth forth to prey about noon, when 

 men are gone home from the fields. 



It hath a little eye, but a very quick sight, and discerns its 

 prey afar off, and beholds the sun with open eyes, Such of her 

 young as through weakness of sight cannot behold the sun, it 

 rejects as unnatural. It liveth long, nor dieth of age or sick- 

 ness, say some, but of hunger, for by age its bill grows so 

 hooked that it cannot feed. ... It is said that it preserves its 

 nest from poison, by having therein a precious stone, named 

 Aetites (without which it is thought the eagle cannot lay her 

 eggs . . .) and keepeth it clean by the frequent use of the herb 

 maidenhair. Unless it be very hungry it devoureth not whole 

 prey, but leaveth part of it for other birds, which follow. Its 



