IS ENCAGED. 245 



the eagle in question, which, without injuring him, had 

 driven its sharp talons through and through his thick sheep- 

 skin coat ! Seizing hold of a stick, he forthwith com- 

 menced belabouring the bird about the head, and continued 

 to do so until such time as life appeared extinct, when, with- 

 drawing the claws from his clothes, he walked off with 

 his prize towards home. On his way, however, the bird 

 began to revive, and by the time he reached the house had 

 quite come to itself again. 



"Subsequently," Dr. Willman went on to say, "Holm- 

 berg caused a capacious cage to be constructed for the 

 accommodation of this eagle. One day it happened that a 

 son of his went up to the cage, and by gestures and other- 

 wise so irritated the bird, that with the rapidity of lightning 

 he struck one of his talons between the bars into the tor- 

 mentor's hand, and with such force, that the middlemost 

 



claw not only passed clean through the hand, but a quarter 

 of an inch of it or more protruded on the other side! 

 Happily, however, a servant-man, hearing the cries of the 

 boy, who was almost beside himself with pain and fright, 

 hasted to the rescue, and soon succeeded in freeing him from 

 his ferocious assailant. After this catastrophe, Holmberg, 

 who had several smaller children, fearing to retain the eagle 

 longer on the premises, gave him to Mr. P. O. Andersson, 

 of Kjeflinge-Molla, where I had ample opportunity of studying 

 his habits. 



" Here we fed him partly on the entrails of calves and 

 other animals, slaughtered for the use of the family, and 

 partly with pigs, that had died from natural causes ; as also 

 on rats, crows and magpies, which I shot for the purpose. 

 One day the entrails of a calf were given to the eagle. After 



