84j haliaetus albicilla. 



find secluded places than any of the others ; they nestle 

 in more elevated, wild, and inaccessible rocks; they 

 rise much higher, and range much farther." Now, the 

 condor, the lammergeyer, and other vultures, are in 

 all these respects at least equal to the eagles ; many 

 birds frequent places as lonely and secluded as they, 

 and many nestle in as elevated^ wild, and inaccessible 

 rocks. " They are much larger than any of the others."' 

 Verily, this is an assertion with a vengeance. The 

 emeu, the cassowary, the swan, the albatross, the ad- 

 jutant, and many other birds, are larger than any 

 eagles known to me at least ; and certainly these birds 

 would far outweigh an equal number of eagles. The 

 assertions respecting the superior strength of their 

 bones, the toughness of their muscles, which " are as 

 firm as pieces of cable,' their very feathers which have 

 a wondrous strength in them, &c., need no refutation. 

 '' Those winds which cleave the oak, and rend up the 

 mountain pine by the roots, do not ruffle the plumage 

 of the mountain eagle, &c. ;" she being formed, no 

 doubt, of molten lead, with her feet cramped and ri- 

 vetted into the rock. " Floating hundreds of feet 

 above the summits of our highest mountains, she spies 

 a grous or a mountain hare" — where you, my honoured 

 reader, could hardly discern an elephant ! " Even 

 the swiftest- winged hawks keep at a distance from the 

 retreat of the eagle," — although the peregrine, the 

 goshawk, the skua, and the raven, find it amusing to 

 skirmish with him ; and, oh sublimity of climax ! " when 

 her shadow passes over the valley, not a wing moves 

 bjit her own ;" although, having been many times in 

 valleys and on hills, and even precipices, under or near 



