170 HABITS OF BIRDS. 
the express instruction or imitation ,of their pa- 
rents. 
With respect to the eagle, which is the most cel- 
ebrated from the remotest antiquity for instructing 
its young, we are told by Moses that she “ stirreth 
up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth 
abroad her wings, and taketh them and beareth 
them on her wings.”* Aristotle adds, that the 
young are not permitted to leave the nest prema- 
iurely ; and if they make the attempt, their parents 
beat them with their wings and tear them with 
their claws. Be this as it may, we are assured 
that eagles will feed their young for a considerable 
period, if the latter are disabled from flying by clip- 
ping their wings; and it is recorded that a country- 
man once obtained a comfortable subsistence for 
his family out of an eagle’s nest, by clipping the 
wings of the eaglets and tying them so as to in- 
crease their cries, a plan which was found to stimu- 
late the exertions of the old birds in bringing prey 
to the nest. It was, of course, necessary for him 
to make his visits when the old birds were ab- 
sent, otherwise he might have been made to pay 
dearly for his plunder. After instructing their 
young in flying and hunting, the parent eagles, like 
other birds of prey, drive them from their territory, 
vhough not, we believe, as Aristotle says, from the 
nest. Bonnet says, ‘ The eagle instructs its young 
in flying, but does not, like the stork, prolong their 
education, for it mercilessly drives them away be- 
fore they are thoroughly taught, and forces them to 
provide for their own wants. All the tyrants of the 
air act in the same manner; yet though this seems 
cruel and shocking when we consider their close 
relationship, it takes a different aspect when we 
consider the kind of life led by those voracious 
birds. Destined to subsist by rapine and carnage, 
they would soon produce a famine among their 
* Deuteronomy, xxxii, 11. 
