EAGLE. 



indiscriminately of quadrupeds and birds. The eggs 

 are seldom more than two, though some say that there 

 are occasionally three, and that in such broods there 

 are two females, one of which becomes an " odd 

 eagle" and lives solitary, growing to a very large 

 size, being very ferocious, and dropping addled eggs 

 occasionally on the mountain tops ; but the tale wants 

 verification. 



" The eagle generally strikes her prey upon the 

 ground, and the stoop is almost instantly fatal to any 

 animal on which she pounces. The mere fall of a 

 body of twelve or even eighteen pounds in weight, 

 from an elevation of 1500 or 2000 feet, would be 

 powerful ; but the eagle shoots down with a great 

 initial velocity, and as she delivers the whole of her 

 momentum with the claw, she not only dashes the 

 animal to the earth, but plunges the claw into its body 

 up to the toe, dislocating the spine or breaking the 

 skull of the feebler quadrupeds, such as hares, and the 

 death of grouse and black game, whic-h form a very 

 large portion of the prey, is instantaneous. The 

 view upon which the eagle proceeds must be a steady 

 one, for on the ground she seldom misses her pounce, 

 though she often does when she attempts to hawk on 

 the wing, as her broad wings and forward rush are 

 both unfavourable to turning, so as to follow the 

 motions of the bird. If the prey is small, she has 

 the power of slackening her speed as she descends, 

 so as to temper the ultimate effect to the necessity 

 there is for it, otherwise, strong as she is, she might 

 be injured by the collision with the ground. An unre- 

 strained stoop from her greatest height would be suf- 

 ficient to dash even an eagle to pieces. If the pounce 

 is not fatal, the clutch instantly follows, in the giving 

 of which the whole weight of the bird in the utmost 

 excitement, with the head elevated, the neck stiff, the 

 feathers of the head and neck erected, and the wings 

 shivering so as to keep the pressure on the instru- 

 ments of death is upon the claws. With small ani- 

 mals, even when they show signs of life after the 

 pounce, the clutch is given with one foot only, and 

 the bird is less excited ; but in no case is the prey 

 touched with the beak, or even looked at, until all 

 motion in it has ceased. When the eye has guided 

 the descent, and the talons have taken effect, the office 

 of the eye is at an end, and the work of death is com- 

 mitted to instruments admirably fitted for carrying it 

 into effect. In general the prey is borne off, but in 

 some cases it is devoured on the spot, that taking 

 place, of course, at those times when the bird has 

 only herself to provide for. 



" In winter, when her pastures are covered with 

 feet or even with fathoms of snow, the eagle is often 

 for weeks together without food. That may be one 

 of the causes (for all phenomena, whether of birds or 

 any thing else, have causes) why she drives the young 

 not only from the eyrie, but from her haunt generally 

 before the intensity of winter sets in ; and it is said, 

 that she drives them lower down the country, where 

 the chances of food are more numerous. 



" Thus the instinct which we are apt to regard as an 

 unkind one is the very best adapted for the preserva- 

 tion of all ; and the eagle is, in her way, just as ten- 

 der a mother as any other animal. As it is necessary 

 for her brood to grow fast and get strong before the 

 inclement season sets in, she is most indefatigable 

 and most successful in supplying them with food, and 

 equally daring in the defence of them against any 

 intruders that may have the temerity to invade an 



eagle's nest ; and when they are so far matured dial 

 they can kill prey for themselves, she drives them 

 down where prey is more easily obtained, while she 

 herself remains to brave the winter at the very throne 

 of its dominion. Herein we may see a beautiful in- 

 stance of that balance and reaction which can be 

 traced through all the works and operations of nature. 

 Populating and cultivating narrow the bounds and 

 diminish the number of eagles, but as there is a con- 

 stant tendency in the eagles to spread and extend 

 their territory and their numbers, that tendency in- 

 stantly acts upon the withdrawal of the restraint ; so 

 that when the eagle becomes necessary in order to 

 maintain the balances of races, and the perfection of 

 the whole of nature, she returns by as unerring a law 

 of nature as that which guides her to her prey. 



" Her strength of endurance also enables her to 

 keep her footing and preserve her existence, under 

 circumstances to which the powers and the life of 

 almost any other animal would be obliged to yield. 

 The same elastic ligament, which, of its own nature, 

 and without effort from the bird, compresses her toes 

 in clutching, enables her to cling to the pinnacle of 

 the rock, and to cling the more firmly the ruder the 

 blast. The claws are not used in those cases, as (hat 

 would injure their points, and unfit them for their 

 proper functions ; but the pads and tubercles hold on 

 upon places where the foot of all else would give 

 way; and the eagle sits with closed wings and close 

 plumage, as if part of the rock itself, while the wind 

 roars and the snow drives, tearing the bushes from 

 their roots, sending them rolling over the precipices, 

 and literally scourging the wilderness with ruin. The 

 strength of the hill ox, the fleetness of the mountain 

 deer, and the resources of the mountain traveller, 

 are often unavailing ; and when the storm breaks, 

 the signal of the raven and the crow points out the 

 place of their bones; but the bones of the eagle are 

 not thus given by nature to be tugged at by ignoble 

 birds. Queen of the tempest, she rides as secure, 

 amid its fury, as when, on a cloudless and breezeless 

 day, she floats down the valley with easy and almost 

 motionless wing." 



We may remark that, notwithstanding the reputa- 

 tion which this celebrated species long has had for 

 being an unreclaimable tenant of the wilds, it is by 

 no means unsusceptible of kindly treatment, and thai, 

 if taken young and duly fed, it may be gradually 

 brought to familiarity and even to playfulness. But 

 though this may be done, as probably every animal, 

 whether of the land, the air, or the waters, may be 

 familiarised by feeding, one does not exactly see the 

 use of it ; and the bird is certainly not only out of its 

 element, but out of its proper use in nature, in any 

 other place than on its native rocks and in its favourite 

 skies. 



The young of this species, while they have the 

 white on the basal part of the tail, partially on the 

 under part of the body, and on the insides of tie 

 thighs, and also the brown on the upper part less 

 broken by the yellowish margins of the feathers, are 

 very apt to range into places where the old ones are 

 never seen ; and as they sometimes take up their 

 abode there, and build nests and breed, while still in 

 the young plumage, we need be little surprised that 

 they should have been so generally and so long looked 

 upon as a separate species, and described and figured 

 as the " common eagle." The more judicious natu- 

 ralists were always of opinion that they were the 



