ii6 



The eagles look what they are, the kings of 

 birds. There is not a starve mark, and hardly 

 a broken feather to be seen in their plumage ; 

 their eyes are bright and keen, and they have 

 no disease of the feet and toes, and every bird 

 looks, and is, ready to fly and catch its prey if 

 it were let out to-morrow. Some of them have 

 flown loose about the Abbey for months before 

 being confined to their cages. 



We propose to say something of the founder 

 of this collection, of whom, since his days at 

 Harrow, it is difficult to say whether animals of 

 all kinds had more fascination for him, or he for 

 them. His room there always contained a 

 small menagerie, such as a couple of dab-chicks 

 in a bath; some young jackdaws in his Sunday 

 hat ; a squirrel, and a family of dormice 

 in the curtains ; whilst in the garden were his 

 eagles. 



The idea of forming a private collection of 

 living eagles and raptorial birds was original, and 

 its success beyond expectation. But no descrip- 

 tion of the birds, as they are seen to-day, would 

 be complete without some reference to the author 

 of the undertaking. There is little doubt that 

 when Dan Meinertzhagen died, we lost a mind 

 almost perfectly equipped by nature to make a 

 mark amongst those best fitted both to learn 



