242 HIS FEROCITY. 



Poor people In parts of Scandinavia occasionally derive 

 considerable benefit during the breeding season from having 

 the eagle for a neighbour ; for watching the departure of the 

 parents from the eyrie, they plunder it of the game, &c., 

 which have been provided for the young. And when, more- 

 over, these become nearly fledged, they tie their legs to 

 the nest, that the supply to the larder may last the longer. 



Some curious notions were formerly entertained respecting 

 the eagle. Amongst the rest, that when hares, &c., failed 

 him, he would attack not only deer, but horses more 

 especially such as were old and worn out. " In this enter- 

 prise," says Pontoppidan, " he makes use of this stratagem : 

 he soaks his wings in water, and then covers them with 

 sand and gravel, with which he flies against the animal's 

 face, and blinds him for a time; the pain of this sets him 

 running about like a distracted creature, and frequently he 

 tumbles down a rock, or some steep place, and breaks his 

 neck ; thus he becomes a prey to the eagle." 



Many stories are related in Scandinavia regarding the 

 ferocity of the eagle, and of his carrying away children. 

 The author quoted tells us that an instance of the kind 

 occurred in 1737, in the parish of Norderhoug in Ringe- 

 rige. A boy, aged two years, r "was, in a state of nudity, 

 playing on the ground not far from his parents, who were 

 occupied with agricultural labours, when in an instant one of 

 these birds pounced down upon the infant, and before assist- 

 ance could be rendered, bore it away to his eyrie. 



Only the autumn before the last, indeed, a little girl, five 

 years old, but of diminutive stature for her years, met with 

 the like fate at Lexviksstrand in Norway. The child had 

 been left alone a short time by the mother, in a field near to 



