STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 143 



refreshment, tliough tlie poor fellow fainted a 

 number of times. When carried to his home, 

 he lay in a swoon for half an hour, and passed 

 three fourths of the ensuing year under the care 

 of phj^sicians and surgeons. 



The following thrilling anecdote is taken 

 from Stanley's History of Birds : A father and 

 his two sons were out together, collecting the 

 eggs of the eagle and other mountain birds. 

 They attached their rope to the summit of a 

 precipice, and went down, in this way, to en- 

 gage in their usual occupation. Having col- 

 lected as many eggs as they could carry, they 

 were all three ascending by the rope — the eld- 

 est of the sons first, his brother a fathom or two 

 below him, and the father of the two following 

 last. They had made considerable progress, 

 when the elder son, looking upward, perceived 

 the strands of the rope grinding against a sharp 

 edge of the rock, and gradually giving way. 

 He immediately reported the alarming fact, 

 " Will it hold together till we gain the sum- 

 mit?" asked the father. "It will not hold 

 another minute," was the reply; "our triple 

 weight is lessening it rapidly." " Will it hold 

 one?" said the father. "It is as much as it 

 can do," replied the son; "even that is doubt- 

 ful." " There is then a possibility at least of 



