134 The Field Naturalist's Quarterly May 



d'un hippotame Levaillant en tua un qui, blesse a mort, 

 arrachait encore des morceaux. Etait-il a jeun ? point de 

 tout : on lui en trouva six livres qu'il avait dans I'estomac." 

 There are quotations, however, which seem to come from 

 personal observations. For instance (" King John," v. i) — 



" No ! Know the gallant monarch is in arms, 

 And like an eagle o'er his aiery towers 

 To souse annoyance that comes near his nest." 



He is speaking of the Golden Eagle evidently, as Chris- 

 topher North knew him, and as I have watched him in 

 Norway, hover over his nest and then speed across the fjord, 

 sometimes stooping quite low in search of chickens or the 

 like, sometimes winging straight for the opposite mountain 

 heights, where he will hunt the rype or the blue hare. 



Shakspear apparently knew something of their nests, 

 perhaps he may have tried to take the young eyeases, as 

 he mentions them in " Hamlet," ii. 2, — at anyrate he has 

 observed their thievish propensities with regard to nests 

 (" Richard HI.," i. 3)— 



"Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's nest," 



where he is using aiery as Virgil does nidi, to mean the in- 

 habitants of the nest and not the nest itself. 



But the passage which seems to me to be closest drawn 

 from Nature is in " Henry IV.," where Shakspear is speaking 

 of Madcap Harry's retinue who have gone to war. I think 

 he must have seen an eagle in captivity ; if not, he has been 

 extraordinarily lucky in his observation of the bird in its wild 

 state. He says (*' Henry IV.," Part II. iv. i)— 



" All furnished, all with arms ; 

 All plumed like estridges, that with the wind 

 Bated like eagles that have lately bathed." 



I am writing from a natural history point of view, and do 

 not care to discuss minutely textual criticisms ; but I may 

 say there are several versions of these lines, some reading 

 " with the wings bated," which does not affect the general 

 sense. In either case the picture is a true one. 



The Prince of Wales (to whom the ostrich feathers were 

 emblematic) and his retinue come on with nodding plumes. 



