108 THE EAGLE. 



he, like the gamekeeper, saw an Eagle seize its prey and 

 fly off, and soon afterwards rise spirally to an immense 

 height till nearly out of sight, and then fall to the earth 

 like a stone. As he approached, he saw a weasel run- 

 ning away from the body, and, on further examination, 

 found that the little animal had got under the Eagle's 

 wing, and sucked the blood until the bird fell from ex- 

 haustion. Another case is on record, of one of these 

 birds attacking a cat, when a battle actually took place 

 in the air, and lasted some minutes. The cat aware, it 

 may be supposed, of her danger, clung with her claws to 

 the Eagle, and prevented him from letting her drop. 

 At length, tired of struggling, and impeded by the cling- 

 ing of the cat, he descended to the earth, where the 

 fight still continued; and in the end some lookers-on 

 captured both the combatants. A cat, however, if once 

 within the fair grasp of an Eagle on firm ground has 

 but a poor chance. One, tempted probably by some 

 pieces of raw meat, was seen to make its way through 

 the lattice- work of a large hut, in which a fine Golden 

 Eagle had been long kept. In an instant, the bird was 

 obverved to pounce from its perch and seize poor puss 

 so rudely and suddenly with his claw, that, notwithstand- 

 ing the vivacious nature of the cat species, she was killed 

 in a moment, without an appearance of struggling, or 

 even quivering of her limbs. The entire claw seemed 

 to have been plunged in a moment into the tenderest 

 part of her body. Having secured his victim beyond 

 the power of escape, he remounted his perch to pause 

 and look about him, and then, again descending, pro- 

 ceeded to tear the flesh from the bones, and devour the 

 carcase at leisure. 



But, besides warm-blooded animals and birds, most, if 

 not all, the Eagle tribe will readily feed on fish; some 

 sorts indeed prefer them, and live in the neighbourhood 

 of large lakes on the sea-shore. 



Some of these birds are gifted with such extraordinary 

 clearness of sight, that from a great height in the air, 



