THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 5 



mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high? 

 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of 

 the rock, and the strong place. From thence she seek- 

 eth the prey, and her eyes behold afar off," Job xxxix. 

 27 — 29. The nest made by this bird is, in fact, a collec- 

 tion of strong sticks, laid on the highest and most inac- 

 cessible parts of rocks, and requiring a space of several 

 square feet. Hence it has been said by one of our 

 poets : 



" The tawny eagle seats his callow brood 

 High on the cliff, and feasts his young with blood : 

 On Snowdon's rocks, or Orkney's wide domain, 

 Whose beetling cliffs o'erhang the western main, 

 The royal bird his lonely kingdom forms 

 Amidst the gathering clouds and sullen storms ; 

 Through the wide waste of air he darts his sight, 

 And holds his sounding pinions poised for flight ; 

 With cruel eye premeditates the war. 

 And marks his destined victim from afar. 

 Descending in a whirlwind to the ground, 

 His pinions, like a rush of waters, sound; 

 The fairest of the fold he bears away. 

 And to his nest compels the struggling prey : 

 He scorns the game by meanest hunters tore. 

 And dips his talons in no vulgar gore." 



The range of the eagle is, however, very extensive : 

 not only is it found in various parts of the United King- 

 dom, particularly in Scotland, but in America, from the 

 temperate to the arctic regions, always preferring a 

 mountainous country; in North Africa, and Asia Minor ; 



