POWERS OF THE EAGLE. 87 



ments, and beheld these assaults mthout dread or apprehension ; nor was the eagle at all 

 hindered from attacking the living prey I oifered it, or rendered shy by my presence. 

 As it was not always in my power, or at least in my will, to give it living food (for I 

 had not always dogs and cats at hand ; and fowls, which are equally acceptable, were 

 too expensive), I substituted flesh, which, though it was not so well rehshed, was not dis- 

 agreeable. In general, when it had flesh at will, it only made one meal a day. I found, 

 by weighing what it ate, that tliirty ounces of flesh served it one day with another. 

 This species of eagle is provided with a very large craw, which, of course, is the first 

 receptacle of food, and when it was at hberty to eat its fill, this was generally distended 

 to a larger size than that of a turkey-cock full of grain ; it gradually contracts in pro- 

 portion as the flesh passes into the stomach, just as it happens in common fowls." 

 *■ It may seem strange that eagles should discover a want of courage, yet M. Vaillant 

 mentions an instance of this kind. " I was once," he says, " witness to a combat which 

 took place in the environs of Paris, between ten missel-thrushes and a white-tailed 

 eagle,* in wliich the latter w^as completely beaten, and had squatted down in a shed, 

 where he had sought refuge. Attracted by the reiterated cries and continued agitation 

 of the thi'ushes, whose manoouvi-ing announced something extraordinary, I went to the 

 spot, and was surpiised to discover them engaged with an eagle. Being in what were 

 called the royal preserves, I was not provided with arms, but unwilhng to resist so fine 

 an opportunity of procuring a bird which would be a valuable acquisition to my collection, 

 I ran to my house at Asnieres, a village not far from the spot, and returned with a pistol, 

 loaded with a large ball, as my fowling-piece would have too much exposed me. I 

 regained the plain ; I saw the eagle still fighting with the missel-thrushes, who had not 

 in the least given way ; and, in defiance of watchful and inflexible keepers, and the ati-o- 

 cious game-laws, with a heart palpitating between joy and apprehension, I approached 

 withui ten paces of the dastardly bu'd, and nicely adjusting my pistol, killed him in a 

 moment. Immediately burying my weapon, and concealing the eagle among some bram- 

 bles, I quitted the place, looking eagerly around me with no little apprehension, as every 

 man whom I saw moving about the plain seemed to me to wear a keeper's uniform ; 

 but tliis time the vigilance of the keepers was at fault — there was no cause for alai-m. 

 I bore ofi" my prize, and gained my dwelling without detection, where, proud of my acqui- 

 sition, I invited all my friends to be witnesses of my triumph." 



M. Huber, in a work published in 1784, entitled " Observations sui- le Vol des Oiseaux 

 de Proie," has made many remarks on the flight of rapacious birds. Of these he 

 makes two divisions : the roivers, birds of high flight, and the sailors, birds whose flight 

 is low. The wing of the rowers is slender, attenuated, only slightly convex, and when 

 unfolded suliject to very considerable tension. The first ten quills are entire, and their 

 barbs touch each other without separation, in their entire length. The motions of this 

 wing are rapid, easy, and strong. Accordingly the ravens fly against the wind, with the 

 head straight, and raise themselves without difiiculty mto the high regions of the air, 

 where they sport in all directions. On the contrary, the -wing of the sailor is thicker, 

 more massive and arched, and less stretched in the act of flying. The first five quills, 

 of an unequal length, are sloped from the middle to the extremity. Thus that portion 

 of the wing which is most important for the purposes of flight, presents an interrupted 

 surface to the air, and the wing itself, actuated by forces of less energy, fails of produc- 



* Aiiuiia c-liiysaetos. 



