1903 How the Animals Die 5 



The longevity of some of our domestic animals is much 

 greater — in the absence of accident — than many are aware 

 of. A correspondent recently wrote to the ' Edinburgh 

 Evening News ' to record the death of a patriarchal cat. 

 'Tommy' had been in the family for twenty years and ten 

 months : from April 1882 until January 1903. Truly a 

 good old age. 



How the Animals Die. 



By William J. Long. 



The scream of an eagle — a rare sound in the summer 

 wilderness — brought me hurrying out of my commoosie 1 to 

 know what had caused Cheplahgan 2 to break the silence. 

 He was poised over his mountain-top at an enormous alti- 

 tude, wheeling in small erratic circles, like an eaglet learning 

 to use the wind under his broad wings, and anon sending 

 his wild cry out over the startled woods. 



Clearly something was wrong with Cheplahgan. This 

 was no eaglet calling aloud to his unknown mate, or trying 

 for the first time the eagle's wonderful spiral flight ; neither 

 was it one of a pair of the royal birds that I had been 

 watching and following for weeks, whose nest and little 

 ones I had found at last on a distant crag. Occasionally, 

 as I followed them, I had glimpses of another eagle, a huge, 

 solitary old fellow without a mate, whose life had been a 

 puzzle and a mystery to me all summer. It was he who was 

 now crying aloud over the high mountain, where I had often 

 seen him looking out with quiet eyes over the wide splendid 

 domain that he ruled no longer, but had given over to 

 younger eagles, — his nestlings, perhaps, — only claiming for 

 himself the right to stay and hunt where he and his vanished 

 mate had so long held sway; for most birds and beasts of prey 

 have their own hunting-grounds, and, until they give them 

 up, none other goes a-poaching there. It was this that had 

 chiefly puzzled me all summer. Now I ran to a point and 



1 A little shelter of boughs and bark. 

 a The bald eagle (Indian name). 



