94 



THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



Golden Eagle. 



found in England and Scotland, but more frequently in 



Ireland, where notwithstanding 

 its wild and apparently untam- 

 able character, one was taken even 

 after it had attained maturity. 

 It soon became domesticated, and 

 firmly attached to the place, 

 where it continued till it died, 

 though perfectly 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 recovering 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 overhanging 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 

 contented 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 accustomed 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 



