J 4 STOniES ABOUT BIRDS. 



and the coats of his stomach are firm enough to digest it. He never warbles 

 to his mate, or utters any of those sweet and tender notes that are so pleasant 

 to the ear ; his voice is like his nature, harsh and forbidding ; it resembles the 

 bark of a dog more than any other sound. 



The nest of the eagle is very large indeed, and made of sticks and dead 

 twigs and heath, and it has a hollow place in the middle lined with a little 

 wool and feathers. 



The young birds are covered with white down, amid which the feathers 

 are beginning to appear. You can sec that the parent eagles have taken care 

 to provide them with abundance of food. The bones of all kinds of small 

 animals lie scattered about the nest, and the half-eaten bodies of grouse and 

 game, the very morsels that are considered to be such delicacies by man. 



The golden eagle is the only one of his tribe that lives in Britain, and in 

 the cultivated parts of the island is very rarely seen ; he loves wild and 

 solitary places, and the remote parts of the Highlands of Scotland suit him 

 best. The Isle of Orkney is one of his favourite resorts. On one side of 

 the island the sea rushes in with a fury that is scarcely to be equalled in any 

 part of the world ; and it has made great rents in the coast, so that there is a 

 line of precipices and caverns that are grand beyond description. 



This is just the place for the eagles to dwell. Here they make their nests 

 year after year — or rather fit them up again. The old birds drive ofif the 

 young ones as soon as they can fly, and keep the nest for themselves. 



They are not very pleasant neighbours, as you may suppose, from their 

 habits of plunder. 



One day an old minister was walking in his garden, when he heard a 

 loud squeaking noise, that, after being very violent, began to grow fainter. 

 He went to see what was the matter, and arrived at the spot just in time 

 to catch a pariing gHmpse of his nice fat pig as it was being carried through 

 the air by an eagle. 



Another day the eagle, having finished the pig, came again to see what 

 he could find. But this time he made rather a mistake. By way of varying 

 his diet, he swooped on a sheep. But his claws got entangled in the wool, 

 and the sheep was rather too heavy to be carried through the air as the pig 

 had been. The minister had time to get to the spot, and knock the eagle 

 down with a stick. 



Of course, the eagles are not at all liked, and the people do all they can 



