THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



11 



straw without the least motion ; and the next day, when 

 all the bandages were unwrapped, lodged itself on a 

 screen, where it remained twelve hours, without once 

 resting on its unsound foot. Its windows were open 

 all the time, but it made no attempt to escape. It re- 

 fused all nourishment until the thirteenth day of its 

 captivity, when it tried its appetite on a rabbit, seizing 

 it with its uninjured claw, and killing it with a stroke 

 of its beak, between the head and the first vertebra of 

 the neck ; and after having devoured it, the eagle re- 

 sumed its usual place on the screen, from whence it 

 stirred no more until the twenty-first day after the acci- 

 dent. At that time it began to try the wounded limb, 

 and without in the least deranging the ligature by which 

 it was bound, regained the use of it by moderate exer- 

 cise. Many a parent who has an invalid child, would 

 have far less trouble, in the exercise of kind and watch- 

 ful attention, were the object of so much care as truly 

 patient as this eagle. The sufferer too, would enjoy 

 advantages which the wayward and irritable never 

 know. 



