1G4 AN EAGLE IN CONFINEMENT. 



nated by the greatest basaltic pillars^ perhaps, in the 

 world ;) these rocks rise perpendicularly from the sea 

 about five hundred feet, and afford an habitation to a 

 pair of eagles, which breed annually in the inaccessi- 

 ble precipice ; and their nest has seldom, if ever, been 

 disturbed by man. At a certain time the young 

 eagles disappear, and leave only the two old ones, who 

 seem desirous of holding undivided empire. To what 

 region the young eagles emigrate, is not known. If 

 one of the old ones is shot, another soon appears ; so 

 that a solitary bird is seldom seen, and no one ever 

 observed more than two old ones. What seems sin- 

 gular is, that although there is a considerable number 

 of sheep breeding and grazing on the plain below, and 

 that these eagles live on lambs, they never molest 

 them, but carry on their depredation-s in Rathlin, in 

 Hantine, and the Highland islands. Whether this 

 arises from something noble in the disposition of the 

 bird, sparing or contemning what is immediately in 

 its power, or from the design of reserving the prey that 

 lies so near its grasp for some pressing emergency, 

 must be left to conjecture. 



The late Marquis of Antrim obtained one of these 

 eagles, and confined it with a chain. This bird was 

 long domesticated, but was often, from the careless- 

 ness of servants, fed on putrid meat, and sometimes 

 so much neglected, that he became very hungry. 



