E A G L E. 



finement ; and there is a spot on one of the southern 

 elopes of the Grampians, in Scotland, where the 

 population, that is, the race of people, has not been 

 changed for many centuries, and there a pair of eagles 

 continue to build in a lofty and inaccessible crag, 

 which, according to the concurrent testimony of the 

 people, the same pair have inhabited beyond the 

 period of human tradition, which, in reference to that 

 very crag, is as old as the days of Sir William Wallace, 

 which may be estimated at about the year 1300, or 

 535 years ago. Whether the eagles were there in 

 the days of Sir William, it is not easy to say ; but if 

 they were, it is probable that the patriotic knight 

 might have caused them some temporary alarm ; for 

 the tradition, universally believed in the district, 

 states, that he descended the face of the crag; nearly 

 perpendicular, and at least a thousand feet high, 

 alighted safely at the bottom, stormed, single-handed, 

 a neighbouring fortalice, then held by the invading 

 English, put the whole garrison to the sword, rallied 

 the country people, led them down Glen Esk, whetted 

 his sword anew upon a great stone by the road-side, 

 met the English army some ten miles down, and 

 totally defeated it, all within the compass of the same 

 four-and-twenty hours. A hint was indeed thrown 

 out, in supplement, by the narrator of this adventure, 

 with whom the writer of the present article went to 

 visit this same pair of eagles as nearly as possible, 

 that the royal birds came there along with Sir Wil- 

 liam, having scented, by anticipation, the feast of the 

 slain that was to ensue, and that they have remained 

 there in honour of the feast, and in gratitude to the 

 illustrious cause ; but the reciter had the candour to 

 add, that he knew few who believed this part of the 

 narration, and could not really find in his heart to 

 believe it himself. Be that as it may, it is certain 

 that this pair of eagles have been there for a very 

 long period, for the people are both observant and 

 intelligent. Their little glen is quite secluded, and 

 depends on its own productions and occurrences for 

 topics of conversation, and every thing that has 

 happened for a century or two is borne in perfect 

 memory. There is another circumstance. Those 

 ancient eagles of Wallace's Crag were much paler in 

 the colour than most of those which I (that pronoun 

 may be used once) have seen in the same mountains ; 

 and, while it is the habit of the species to lose some 

 white in its progress to maturity, it is also understood 

 to become hoary, through old age, before it ceases to 

 spread its broad wings in the upper air, and to shoot 

 down in its stoop, like a frost-rent fragment from the 

 beetling summit of the crag. 



The four distinctive kinds of eagles into which the 

 whole race might be arranged, if we had sufficient 

 data for the determining of all their characters, which, 

 unfortunately for this very interesting branch of 

 ornithology, we have not, would be Eagles, par 

 excellence, meaning thereby the golden eagle, and the 

 rest of the more powerful mountaineers which agree 

 most closely with it in habit ; Vulture Eagles, or 

 those which are more in the vicinity of the woods, 

 and which, though large in size, are not so compactly 

 built, or proportionately so strong ; Fishing Eagles, 

 or those which chiefly or partially levy their contri- 

 butions upon the waters ; and Hawk Eagles, or those 

 of smaller size, and comparatively feebler powers. 

 We shall not, however, attempt to make any sys- 

 tematic arrangement of the eagles into these groups, 

 e the characters of many, indeed the greater 



]SAT. HIST. VOL. II. 



353 



number of them, are too imperfectly known for 

 enabling us to make such an arrangement anything 

 like perfect; and so we must content ourselves with 

 notices of the leading species in an order which is of 

 necessity somewhat miscellaneous. 



GOLDEN EAGLE (A. chrygaeta). Some notion may 

 be formed of the appearance and expression of this 

 magnificent bird by examining the figure in the plate, 

 " BIRDS OF PREY." That figure represents the eagle 

 in the act of clutching, with the gripe of death, the 

 prey upon which she has just alighted in her terrible 

 stoop from the top of the sky. The aim which she 

 takes on these occasions is so unerring, her descent 

 so rapid, and her stroke so powerful, that if the prey 

 is not a very large animal, the death-wound is given 

 by the shock. It seldom happens, however, that the 

 life of the prey becomes extinct in the instant ; and 

 as the bird never touches the prey with her beak, or 

 even deigns to look at it after the stroke, until all 

 motion of life in it has ceased to the feeling which 

 she has of it with her feet, that where she can be seen 

 in the act of preying, which is not often, even in those 

 countries where eagles are most numerous, she is 

 found to remain for some time in the attitude repre- 

 sented by the artist. During the whole of this time 

 all her weight is borne upon the feet, and all her 

 energy concentrated in the clutch of the talons. The 

 head is elevated and drawn backward in what one 

 would be disposed to call an attitude of disdain, 

 though in reality it is nothing more than the bearing 

 of that part, so as that the whole weight may tell upon 

 the foot or feet engaged in completing the work of 

 death. The wings are held half expanded and shiver- 

 ing, and the tail is spread to the lull width of its 

 fan-like expansion. When all motion in the prey has 

 ceased, preparation is made for the feast, unless the 

 prey is to be borne off to the eyrie, which is generally 

 the case when there are eaglets there ; if not, and if 

 the bird is not disturbed, it is done on the spot, and 

 the process is gone about in a very systematic 

 manner. If one of those mammalia on which eagles 

 feed, as a lamb or a mountain hare but it is rarely 

 the former, as eagles do not hover much over places 

 where there are shepherds and flocks one foot is 

 planted on the throat, and the other on the lower 

 part of the pelvis, and a stroke of the bill serves to 

 divide the skin along the whole of the under part. 

 The skin is then dexterously turned back on both 

 sides, and the chest and abdomen are opened, the 

 blood and vital parts being the first that are devoured. 

 Then follow the rest ; and if the eagle is hungry, 

 which is generally the case, as nothing but the 

 craving of appetite, or the instinct of feeding the 

 young, can overcome the native indolence of these 

 birds, the whole of the flesh, usually bones and all, is 

 devoured upon the spot. How the golden eagle may 

 deal with feathered prey, the writer of this article is 

 unable to say, never having seen her at such a meal 

 in a state of wild nature ; but, as she goes so well to 

 work in skinning mammalia, there is little doubt that 

 she is equally dexterous in the deplumation of birds. 



Here it may not be amiss to mention an error with 

 regard to both birds and beasts of prey, which is so 

 very prevalent as to have become an idiomatic part 

 of almost every language, to the users of which such 

 animals are known, and who have advanced so far in 

 the use of thought and of speech, as to have figurative 

 as well as literal meanings to their words. Those 

 more powerful of the carnivorous races, whether of 

 Z 



