ROYAL OR GOLDEN EAGLE. 65 



The ferocious and savage nature of the Eagle, in an 

 unreclaimed state, is sometimes displayed in a remarkable 

 manner. A peasant attempted to rob an eyry of this 

 bird situated in the lake of Killarney ; for this purpose 

 he stripped and swam over to the spot in the absence of 

 the old birds ; but, on his return, while yet up to the chin 

 in water, the parents arrived, and missing their young, 

 instantly fell on the unfortunate plunderer, and killed 

 him on the spot. 



There are several well authenticated instances of their 

 carrying off children to their nests. In 1737, in the par- 

 ish of Norderhougs, in Norway, a boy, over 2 years old, 

 on his way from the cottage to his parents at work in 

 the fields at no great distance, fell into the pounce of 

 an Eagle, who flew off with the child in their sight and 

 was seen no more. Anderson, in his history of Iceland, 

 says, that in that island children of 4 or 5 years of age have 

 occasionally been borne away by Eagles : and Ray re- 

 lates, that in ,one of the Orkneys a child of a year old 

 was seized in the talons of this ferocious bird, and car- 

 ried above 4 miles to its nest ; but the mother knowing 

 the place of the eyry, followed the bird, and recovered 

 her child yet unhurt. 



The Common, or Ring-tailed Eagle, is now found to be 

 the young of the Golden Eagle. These progressive 

 changes have been observed by Temminck on two living 

 subjects which he kept for several years. 



In the adult bird the summit of the head to the nape of the neck 

 is ornamented with yellowish ferruginous pointed feathers ; all the 

 other parts of the body are of a dark brown, more or less inclining 

 towards black according to age ; the inner side of the thighs, and 

 the feathers of the legs are of a clear brown. The primaries, in the 

 old bird, or F. chrysaetos, according to Brisson have the inner barbs 

 of the first 3 indented or shortened ; in a specimen which I obtained 

 in this vicinity, the first 4 are so indented, and in the young, or 

 6* 



