212 BIRDS IN TOWN AND VILLAGE 



yond the clouds, alone can give free space for the 

 display of its powers and scope to its boundless 

 energies. Nor to the power of flight alone, but 

 also to a vision formed for sweeping wide 

 horizons, and perceiving objects at distances 

 which to short-sighted man seem almost miracu- 

 lous. Doubtless, eagles, like men, possess some 

 adaptiveness, else they would perish in their en- 

 forced inactivity, swallowing without hunger and 

 assimilating with . pleasure the cold coarse 

 flesh we give them. A human being can exist, 

 and even be tolerably cheerful, with limbs para- 

 lyzed and hearing gone; and that, to my mind, 

 would be a parallel case to that of the eagle de- 

 prived of its liberty and of the power to exercise 

 its flight, vision, and predatory instincts. 



As I sit writing these thoughts, with a cage 

 containing four canaries on the table before me, 

 I cannot help congratulating these little prisoners 

 on their comparatively happy fate in having been 

 born, or hatched, finches and not eagles. And yet 

 albeit I am not responsible for the restraint which 

 has been put upon them, and am not their owner, 

 being only a visitor in the house, I am troubled 

 with some uncomfortable feelings concerning their 



