EAGLE. 



mammalia or birds, arc represented as though they 

 were constantly engaged in the work of death and 

 destruction ; that the lion in the desert is for ever roar- 

 ing and rending ; and that the mountain air can never 

 rest for the wing of the eagle ; that her shadow is a 

 constant ensign of dread, and her cry a never-ceasing 

 sound of fear. This is the general notion, but nothing 

 can be wider of the fact, and nothing would be more 

 in opposition to the whole tenor of nature's economy. 

 It is the small powers and the feeble exertions in 

 nature that are never at rest. Those creeping currents 

 of the air which we can hardly call breezes, and which 

 tell only upon the leaves of the aspen, are never at rest ; 

 but storms are not frequent, and a hurricane, even 

 in what may be called the hurricane countries, is an 

 event of comparatively rare occurrence. Just so 

 among birds. The sparrow is necessarily catching 

 caterpillars, and picking up those crumbs and that 

 refuse and waste which would become offensive if 

 allowed to accumulate, while, on the average of the 

 .var, the golden eagle does not feed once a-day, and 

 probably not once in the course of the week. Even 

 when eagles are on the hunt, they do not occasion 

 much general alarm to those animals upon which 

 they prey. The eagle, when " towering in her pride 

 of place," certainly commands in vision, and can 

 command in power of destruction, a very wide 

 horizon ; but still her command, even at this time, is 

 one of peace and general safety ; and as hawks and 

 buzzards and harriers, which are really far more 

 destructive, especially of moor game, than eagles, are 

 not very fond of beating the bushes if there is an 

 eagle above them in the sky, it is doubtful whether, 

 upon the whole, the golden eagle may not partake 

 more of the character of a preserver than of that of a 

 destroyer. Even when she has singled out her prey, 

 and is about to stoop at it, the fluttering wings, as 

 she winds herself up to the bent of her power, and 

 the loud note with which she begins her descent, all 

 tend to warn the rest of the animals, so that they lie 

 close ; the eagle devours the prey in silence, and she 

 does not stoop again on the same ground during the 

 same day. The consideration of these points is of 

 some consequence in those places where the remains 

 of this truly splendid race of birds are still to be 

 found ; and, as an eagle upon a mountain rock, or 

 in the mountain sky, is certainly worth something, it 

 would be a matter of at least some importance to 

 ascertain whether the evil of them so far overbalances 

 the good, as to warrant a price being set upon their 

 heads, or rather upon their feet, in most places where 

 there is a vestige of them left, and sheep have been 

 introduced. 



So far as our personal experience goes and we 

 have seen a good deal of those places in our own 

 country where the golden eagle is still to be met 

 with in straggling pairs, inhabiting some of the more 

 wild and rocky places our judgment, founded upon 

 this experience, is in favour of the eagle. Even if 

 these birds did occasionally capture a lamb, or descend 

 upon a sheep that had stuck fast in the mire, and 

 must have perished there, eagle or no eagle, there are 

 surely other pleasures for mankind besides the mere 

 fact of eating sheep ! and as these birds never invade 

 those places'of which man has properly taken real 

 and practical possession by cultivating them, it is not 

 easy to see upon what well-grounded plea, either in 

 nature or in the economy of art, man should invade 

 the eagle's country in the not very reputable charac- 

 ter of a merely wanton destroyer. It really does not 



appear that man has established any title to seek and 

 destroy the eagle upon the ledge of the mountain 

 rock, unless he has built his own dwelling there ; and 

 if he so builds, the eagle will confess the superiority 

 of this his legitimate title, and go away of her own 

 accord ; but, till then, it really appears that there is 

 a natural right on the part of the eagle, and that to 

 disturb her is wanton cruelty, and manifest injustice. 



We strongly suspect too, that the " informations " 

 laid against the eagles come chiefly, if not solely, from 

 that most fertile of all sources of error and absurdity; 

 " book-learning." The stories about eagles which are 

 repeated again and again, are, no doubt, terrible 

 enough, and likely enough to mislead and prejudice 

 the minds of the ignorant ; but they are not the more 

 likely to be true upon this account, and by far the 

 greater number of them bear internal evidence that 

 neither the manufacturers nor any of the successive 

 i retail dealers knew any thing about the habits of 

 eagles, or had ever by chance seen one in wild nature, 

 nor could they, had they seen one in the sky, have 

 distinguished it from a heron, or even a wild-goose. 



We ha\ e discussed the subject of the mischief done 

 by eagles with very intelligent sheep farmers in the 

 neighbourhood of their eyries, that is, as near as a 

 house or habitation can be to a golden eagle's nest ; 

 and though the general opinion among these parties 

 was, that eagles, as a race of destroyers and pests, 

 ought to be exterminated at all times, and by every 

 means that, in short, the killing of an eagle was 

 almost, if not altogether, as meritorious a deed as the 

 saving of a "human life. In proof of this fact, the bell 

 pulls, and in some cases the handles of whips, were 

 finished off with eagles' feet, in testimony of the vic- 

 tories which had been gained over them. When, 

 however, we came to the main point of the case, the 

 real harm which had been done by the eagles, they 

 were invariably obliged to have recourse to other 

 times, and other places, for their instances. ' : No 

 great harm had been done by the eagles since they 

 had possession, neither did they recollect of any which 

 had happened just in that part of the country ; but 

 they had been told, and they had no doubt of the 

 truth, that very serious damage had been done half a 

 century ago, and even in times much more recent, at 

 some place thirty or forty miles distant." No matter 

 for the place this was the invariable account : the 

 eagles of the one side of the great ridge of the Gram- 

 pians, or of any of the other ridges, less extended but 

 hardly less elevated, and, generally speaking, much 

 more wild and picturesque, always did their mischief 

 on the other side. For instance, the eagles of the 

 glens of the Tay, the Ila, and all the southward run- 

 ning rivers, were always troublesome fellows to the 

 people of Badenoch ; while the eagles of Strathspey 

 hewed down the lambs and muttons in the south as 

 if the birds had been Samson and the flocks Philis- 

 tines ; and so marvellous were the tales that we were 

 often put in mind, that not the eagles but the nar- 

 rators might probably have found and armed them- 

 selves with the weapon of the puissant son of Manoah. 

 What may be done by those eagles which have a 

 portion of the character of the vulture in them, which 

 come near the banks of the streams and shores of the 

 creeks, and approach more closely to the habitations of 

 man, we have not the means of ascertaining from per- 

 sonal observation ; but it is very unlikely that, under 

 any state of things, the golden eagle can, or could be 

 very injurious to man. As for killing lambs, the eagles 

 do not come so far down, excepting at a rare and 



