THE EAGLE. 101 



customed food, it would seize upon and kill young pigs. 

 Children, who constantly met it as it walked about the 

 garden, were never molested ; but on one occasion it 

 attacked its master with some violence, in consequence, 

 as it was supposed, of his having neglected to bring it 

 some bread or other food it was accustomed to receive 

 from his hand. At length, after having lived about ten 

 or twelve years in this way, it was killed by a powerful 

 and ferocious mastiff. Nobody saw the battle, but it 

 must have been long and bravely contested, for the dog, 

 though victorious, was so severely wounded that it died 

 almost immediately afterwards. 



The weight of a large Eagle is about twelve pounds, 

 though some (as the Bird of Washington) weigh fourteen 

 pounds and a half, rather more than an average-sized 

 Goose. But in order to transport this weight with 

 their extraordinary occasional speed of 140 miles or 

 more per hour, which it has been proved these birds 

 can accomplish, there is a prodigious spread of wing, 

 from seven to upwards of ten feet from tip to tip, in 

 addition to a muscular power almost incredible. 



An Eagle has been known to strike and kill its prey 

 with a stroke of its pinions, before it touched them with 

 its claws. Many people have, however, doubted whether 

 they have sufficient strength to carry off children and 

 lambs ; and if such belief rested only on one or two 

 instances, it might be reasonably questioned; but so 

 many well authenticated cases have been mentioned, as 

 having occurred in places widely distant, that we do not 

 see how the fact can be denied. 



Bishop Heber, in his travels in India, passed through 

 a mountainous district where sad complaints were made 

 of their carrying off infant children ; and we remember 

 some years ago, in the Alps, that on a high-pointed pin- 

 nacle of inaccessible rock, jutting out from a peak of 

 snow near the summit of the Jung Frau, one of the 

 highest of the Alpine range of mountains, there might 

 be seen the tattered remains of the clothing of a poor 



