564 &RPTILES AND BIRDS. 



Naumann positively contradicts this assertion. It is at all events a 

 matter of certainty that the flight of this bird is very rapid. An Eagle 

 has been noticed circling over a hare in a field, and hemming it in, so 

 that the victim was unable to escape on either side, always finding 

 its enemy in front. 



The Eagle builds its nest in the clefts of the most inaccessible 

 rocks, or on .their edge, that its brood may be safe from danger or 

 surprise. This nest is nothing but a floor, made of sticks placed 

 carelessly side by side, bound together with some pliable branches, 

 and lined with leaves, reeds, and heather. However, its solidity is 

 sufficient to resist for years the decay caused by time, and to bear 



Fig. 259. Wing of an Eagle. 



the load of four or five birds, weighing together from seventy to 

 eighty pounds, with the provisions brought for their sustenance. 

 Some eagles' nests have an area of as much as five feet square. The 

 number of eggs laid is generally two or three, rarely four. Incubation 

 requires thirty days. 



Their young being very voracious, the parent birds are compelled 

 to hunt with great assiduity. Nevertheless, should scarcity occur, the 

 brood do not suffer in proportion, for Nature has endowed them with 

 the faculty of supporting abstinence for many days. This peculiarity 

 they possess in common with all birds of prey. Buffon mentions an 

 Eagle which, having been taken in a trap, passed five weeks without 

 anything to eat, and did not appear enfeebled until the last eight 

 days. An English author states that for twenty-one days a tame Eagle 

 was not fed, and that the bird appeared to have suffered little from 

 its protracted fast. 



