EAGLE.] NATURAL HISTORY. 97 



springing water, and then she flieth up into the air as far 

 as she may, till she be full hot by heat of the air and by 

 travail of flight, and so then by heat the pores be opened, 

 and the feathers chafed, and she falleth suddenly into the 

 well, and there the feathers be changed, and the dimness of 

 her eyes is wiped away and purged, and she taketh again 

 her might and strength. Also, when the Eagle ageth, the 

 bill waxeth so hard and so crooked, that unneath he may 

 take his meat. And against this disadvantage he findeth a 

 remedy ; for he seeketh a stone, against the which he 

 smiteth and beateth strongly his bill, and cutteth off the 

 charge of the bill, and receiveth meat and might and 

 strength, and so becometh young again. The gentle falcon 

 or other such fowls unneath take preys on that day that 

 they hear the Eagle ; and that perchance cometh of great 

 dread. And that Eagle that taketh her prey on the water 

 hath one foot close and whole, as the foot of a gander, and 

 therewith she ruleth herself in the water, when she cometh 

 down because of her prey. And her other foot is a cloven 

 foot, with full sharp claws, with the which she taketh her 

 prey. And the Eagle's feathers have a privy fretting virtue; 

 for the Eagle's feathers done and set among feathers of 

 wings of other birds corrumpeth and fretteth them ; as 

 strings made of wolf's guts done and put in a lute or in 

 an harp among strings made of sheep's guts do destroy and 

 fret and corrump the strings made of sheep's guts, if it so 

 be that they be set among them. Also she is right cruel 

 against her own birds, for, to teach and to compel them to 

 take prey of other birds, she beateth and woundeth them 

 With her bill. Bartholomew (Eerthelet\ bk. xii. i. 



WHEREVER an Eagle sees from on high a serpent,, he 

 attacks it with great clamour, and tears it with his claws, 

 and after taking out the deadly venom from its entrails, 

 he devours it, and the strength of the venom which was 

 in it, being cooked by the heat of the Eagle, is extin- 

 guished. And by this experiment he is either made sad, or 

 else he glories in it. There is in the North a large Eagle 

 which always lays two eggs ; and it catches a hare or a 

 fox, and carefully flays off its skin, in which it wraps its 

 eggs, and puts them in the warmth of the sun, and so 

 leaves them and does not sit, but waits until they are 



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