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lu the wa)'' of food he is passionately fond of 

 rabbits, one of which he will eat in a day. When it is 

 thrown to him he will look at it for a second or two ; 

 then, pouncing upon it and holding it with his claws, 

 he commences to drag it hither and thither until he 

 has found a suitable spot ; then he begins at the head, 

 the fur, small bones and all going down without the 

 slightest effort ; but should he hear the smallest noise, 

 he spreads his wings all round the rabbit, and flashing 

 around his magnificent eyes with gory fur adhering to 

 his beak, looks all round as much as to say, " Yes, I 

 have it, if you want it you will have to get it." 



Sometimes I was hard pressed to get food for the 

 new favourite, and it was not always with joy that I 

 took my gun in the midst of hail storms and the like 

 to find rabbits, which I found objected to the weather 

 as much as I did, so in moments of perhaps excusable 

 weakness I lingered too often near a lot of prize 

 chickens which were near the aviary, and one or two 

 days I noticed some dejected hens which I thought it 

 would be kind to put out of pain, so out of pain they 

 were put, and given to the Eagle; this was all right 

 for a time, until someone noticed the chickens were 

 getting scarcer, when of course I said " it was those 

 beastly rats." Then the fat was in the fire, as they 

 were then all removed to another place quite a long 

 way off, and where it would have been just as bad to 

 get to as to go and shoot a rabbit. 



We get a pleasing account of the tameness of the 

 Golden Eagle from Jardine's Ornithology. A Mr. 

 Thompson writes : — 



" My friend, Richard Langtry, Esq., of Fort- 

 william, near Belfast, has at present a bird of this 

 species, which is extremely docile and tractable. It 

 was taken last summer from a nest in Inverness-shire, 

 and came into his possession about the end of Sep- 

 tember. This bird at once became attached to its 



