562 REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



for other creatures. However great may be his hunger, he will 

 never feed upon carcases. Again, like the Lion, he lives a solitary 

 life, inhabiting a desert, into which he allows no other bird to enter, 

 and in which he himself must be the sole hunter ; for two pairs of 

 Eagles in the same mountain district are perhaps a rarer sight than 

 two families of Lions in the same part of a forest. They keep at a 

 sufficient distance from one another, so that the space allotted to 

 them should furnish each an ample subsistence ; and the extent of 

 their demesne is regulated by its productiveness. The Eagle has a 

 flashing eye like the Lion, and is nearly of the same colour ; has claws 

 of a similar shape, a breath equally rank, and a cry equally frightful. 

 Both seem as if they were made for combat and the pursuit of prey ; 

 both are alike inimical to companionship, alike ferocious, alike proud, 

 and difficult to tame." 



Buffon has much overrated the character of the Eagle ; it will be 

 well to reduce it to somewhat more just proportions. Agreeing with 

 the immortal naturalist, we admit that the Eagle is endowed with no 

 common amount of strength. With regard to its magnanimity we 

 must be allowed to entertain a doubt. As a matter of fact, the Eagle 

 always attacks animals which are unable to resist it ; if it disdains 

 small birds, it is because they can easily evade its pursuit, and after 

 all, there would be but little profit gained if they were caught. As 

 to its moderation, it is easily proved to have no existence save in the 

 imagination of the distinguished naturalist. On the contrary, the 

 Eagle is voracious ; it never leaves its prey until it is completely 

 surfeited, and then only because it is unable to carry away the 

 remainder. So far from despising carcases, it will readily feed 

 upon them, even when it is not compelled by need, for it will gorge 

 itself on carrion to such an extent that through surfeit it frequently 

 becomes incapable of avoiding its enemies. Its honesty, too, is a 

 fact not better established, for the Fish Eagle pursues birds that are 

 weaker than itself, and, in defiance of all justice, takes from them the 

 booty which they have acquired through labour. 



By a kind of rhetorical metaphor the Eagle has been proclaimed 

 " the king of birds." If the possession of strength, and the abuse 

 which is made of it, constitute the attributes of royalty, the Eagle has 

 an unquestionable right to the title ; but if with the kingly rank we 

 connect the ideas of courage and nobility, it would never do to place 

 the crown on the Eagle's head. 



The ancients were inspired with a juster sentiment in making the 

 Eagle the symbol of victory. The Assyrians, the Persians, and the 

 Romans placed an Eagle with outspread wings on the top of their 



