146 STORIES ABOUT BIRDS. 



few feet of him. His attention was fixed upon 

 the meat. I saw him put his foot into the pan, 

 where there was a large piece boiling; but 

 finding the water rather too hot for him, he let 

 go of the piece he had caught hold of, and left 

 the pan. There were two large pieces, a leg 

 and a shoulder, lying upon a wooden platter. 

 He thrust both his claws into these pieces, and 

 carried them off. He was gone some mi'nutes, 

 during which time I loaded my rifle with ball, 

 and sat down to watch him, close by the platter 

 of meat. When he returned, he went to work 

 to get the rest of the meat ; but we all thought 

 he had already obtained more than his share of 

 the goat, and did not love to spare any more. 

 So I despatched him by means of my rifle." 



M. Vaillant, a French naturalist, once saw a 

 desperate battle between an eagle and a serpent 

 of considerable size. After repeated trials of 

 strength on both sides, the serpent became sat- 

 isfied that his enemy was the stronger, and he 

 tried to get back to his hole. But the bird 

 seemed to be aware of what was going on, and 

 with one leap she placed herself between the 

 serpent and the hole. At length, finding it 

 was useless to try to get away, the serpent 

 boldly erected himself, and did his best to 

 frighten the bird. He hissed dreadfully, and 



