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- 

 turely ; 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, 

 though 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. 



