562 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 
for other creatures. However great may be his hunger, he will never 
feed upon dead carcases. Again, like the Lion, he lives a solitary 
life, inhabiting a desert, into which he allows no other bird to enter, 
and in which he himself must be the sole hunter; for two pairs of 
Eagles in the same mountain district are perhaps a rarer sight than 
two families of Lions in the same part of a forest. They keep ata 
sufficient distance from one another, so that the space allotted to 
them should furnish each an ample subsistence ; and the extent of 
their demesne is regulated by its productiveness. ‘The Eagle has a 
flashing eye like the Lion, and is nearly of the same colour ; has claws 
of a similar shape, a breath equally rank, and a cry equally frightful. 
Both seem as if they were made for combat and the pursuit of prey ; 
both are alike inimical to companionship, alike ferocious, alike proud, 
and difficult to tame.” 
Buffon has much overrated the character of the Eagle ; it will be 
well to reduce it to somewhat more just proportions. Agreeing with 
the immortal naturalist, we admit that the Eagle is endowed with no 
common amount of strength. With regard to its magnanimity we 
must be allowed to entertain a doubt. As a matter of fact, the Eagle 
always attacks animals which are unable to resist it; if it disdains 
small birds, it is because they can easily evade its pursuit, and after 
all, there would be but little profit gained if they were caught. As 
to its moderation, it is easily proved to have no existence save in the 
imagination of the distinguished naturalist. On the contrary, the 
Eagle is voracious; it never leaves its prey until it is completely 
surfeited, and then only because it is unable to carry away the 
remainder. So far from despising dead carcases, it will readily feed 
upon them, even when it is not compelled by need, for it will gorge 
itself on carrion to such an extent that through surfeit it frequently 
becomes incapable of avoiding. its enemies. Its honesty, too, is a 
fact not better established, for the Fish Eagle pursues birds that are 
weaker than itself, and, in defiance of all justice, takes from them the 
booty which they have acquired through labour. 
By a kind of rhetorical metaphor the Eagle has been proclaimed 
“the king of birds.” If the possession of strength, and the abuse 
which is made of it, constitute the attributes of royalty, the Eagle has 
an unquestionable right to the title; but if with the kingly rank we 
connect the ideas of courage and nobility, it would never do to place 
the crown on the Eagle’s head. 
The ancients were inspired with a juster sentiment in making the 
Eagle the symbol of victory. ‘The Assyrians, the Persians, and the 
Romans placed an Eagle with outspread wings on the top of their 
