184 BRITAIN'S BIRDS AND THEIR NESTS. 



land traditions on the subject includes the carrying of 

 a babe a distance of sixteen miles across the Minch ! 

 In Central Asia the Golden Eagle is trained by the 

 Kirghiz horsemen to hunt the wolf. The bird, however, 

 does not kill the wolf, but merely detains it by striking 

 at it with wings and claws, giving the dogs and riders 

 time to overtake the animal. 



Often the Golden Eagle descends to mere carrion- 

 eating, and this has proved its undoing in Ireland. 

 Poisoned meat has there been one of the chief ajrents in 

 its extermination, while it has not affected the Peregrine 

 Falcon, which despises all food not procured by itself. 

 In captivity also the Eagle will, of course, take food killed 

 for it. In these circumstances we may study its methods 

 of feeding. In has a definite way of attacking every- 

 thing. Standing on a bird, it plucks the feathers skil- 

 fully with its beak, and does not tear it open and 

 begin to eat until the whole is plucked clean. Seizing 

 a fish and holding it firmly down at one end, it runs 

 along it with its beak, breaking each vertebra in turn, 

 before ripping the body open. When the food, what- 

 ever it be, is prepared, and a surface of flesh exposed, 

 the Eagle holds it firmly down with one or both feet, 

 and proceeds to tear off pieces with its beak, and 

 swallow them forthwith. Very little is left except large 

 bones or pieces of skin that have fallen away during 

 the meal. Afterwards the claws are carefully cleaned 

 with the beak, which is then rubbed, first one side and 

 then the other, against the perch. Even in the miser- 

 able conditions of a small cage, or, perhaps worse, a 

 hutch and chain, an eagle will live to a great age — 

 well over half a century. No estimate of the normal 

 life-span can of course be made from this ; the con- 

 ditions of freedom are at once healthier and harder. 



