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THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



Golden Eagle. 



This was the large Golden Eagle, a species occasion- 

 ally found in England and Scotland, but more frequently 



in Ireland, where, not- 

 withstanding its wild and 

 apparently untameable 

 character, one was taken 

 even after it had attained 

 maturity. It soon be- 

 came domesticated, and 

 firmly attached to the 

 place, where it continued 

 till it died, though per- 

 fectly at liberty, it never 

 having been chained, or 

 put under any restraint. 

 Its wings had, indeed, 

 been cut when first 

 brought thither, but they 

 were allowed to grow again ; and the noble bird, on re- 

 covering the use of them, would repeatedly soar away, 

 and absent himself for a fortnight or three weeks. It 

 became very much attached to those who were in the 

 habit of feeding or caressing it. On its first arrival it 

 had been placed in a garden, situated on a slope over- 

 hanging a lake ; a house or shed had also been built for 

 its accommodation ; but it generally preferred a perch 

 of its own finding out, in the branch of a large apple 

 tree, which grew in nearly a horizontal position from 

 the stem. Its food was chiefly crows, which were shot 

 for it; sometimes, however, it attempted to procure 

 them for itself, but never successfully, as their agility in 

 turning short and rapidly, enabled them to elude its 

 superior strength of wing ; latterly, therefore, it con- 

 tented itself with eyeing them wistfully as they flew or 

 perched securely over its head. It was never suspected 

 of committing any havoc among the sheep or lambs in 

 the adjoining fields; but now and then, when from some 

 accident it had not been regularly supplied with its ac- 



