474 



A HISTORY OF 



extraordinary to see two pair of eagles in the 

 same mountain, as two lions in the same forest. 

 They keep separate, to find a more ample 

 supply ; and consider the quantity of their 

 game as the best proof of their dominion. 

 Nor does the similitude of these animals stop 

 here : they have both sparkling eyes, and 

 nearly of the same colour ; their claws are of 

 the same form, their breath equally strong, 

 and their cry equally loud and terrifying. 

 Bred both for war, they are enemies of all 

 society : alike fierce, proud, and incapable of 

 being easily tamed. It requires great patience 

 and much art to tame an eagle ; and even 

 though taken young, and brought under by 

 long assiduity, yet still it is a dangerous do- 

 mestic, and often turns its force against its 

 master. When brought into the field for the 

 purposes of fowling, the falconer is never sure 

 of its attachment: that innate pride, and love 

 of liberty, still prompt it to regain its native 

 solitudes ; and the moment the falconer sees 

 it, when let loose, first stoop towards the 

 ground, and then rise perpendicularly into the 

 clouds, he gives up all his former labour for 

 lost ; quite sure of never beholding his late 

 prisoner more. Sometimes, however, they 

 are brought to have an attachment* for their 

 feeder; they are then highly serviceable, 

 and liberally provide for his pleasures and 

 support. When the falconer lets them go 

 from his hand, they play about and hover 

 round him till their game presents, which they 

 see at an immense distance, and pursue with 

 certain destruction. 



Of all animals the eagle flies highest ; and 

 from thence the ancients have given him the 

 epithet of the bird of heaven. Of all others 

 also, he has the quickest eye ; but his sense of 

 smelling is far inferior to that of the vulture. 

 He never pursues, therefore, but in sight ; and 

 when he has seized his prey, he stoops from 

 his height, as if to examine its weight, always 

 laying it on the ground before he carries it off. 

 As his wing is very powerful, yet, as he has 

 but little suppleness in the joints of the leg, he 

 finds it difficult to rise when down ; however, 

 if not instantly pursued, he finds no difficulty 

 in carrying off geese and cranes. He also 

 carries away hares, lambs, and kids ; and 

 often destroys fawns and calves, to drink their 

 blood, and carries a part of their flesh to his 

 retreat. Infants themselves, when left unat- 



tended, have been destroyed by these rapaci- 

 ous creatures ; which probably gave rise to the 

 fable of Ganymede's being snatched up by an 

 eagle to heaven. 



An instance is recorded in Scotland of two 

 children being carried off by eagles ; but for- 

 tunately they received no hurt by the way ; 

 and, the eagles being pursued, the children 

 were restored unhurt out of the nests to the 

 affrighted parents. 



The eagle is thus at all times a formidable 

 neighbour ; but peculiarly when bringing up 

 its young. It is then that the female, as well 

 as the male, exert all their force and industry 

 to supply their young. Smith, in his history 

 of Kerry, relates, that a poor man in that coun- 

 try got a comfortable subsistence for his 

 family, during a summer of famine, out of an 

 eagle's nest, by robbing the eaglets of food, 

 which was plentifully supplied by the eld ones. 

 He protracted their assiduity beyond the usual 

 time, by clipping the wings, and retarding the 

 flight of the young ; and very probably also, 

 as I have known myself, by so tying them as 

 to increase their cries, which is always found 

 to increase the parent's despatch to procure 

 them provision. It was lucky, however, that 

 the old eagles did not surprise the countryman 

 as he was thus employed, as their resentment 

 might have been dangerous. 



It happened some time ago, in the same 

 country, that a peasant resolved to rob the nest 

 of an eagle, that had built in a small island in 

 the beautiful lake of Killarney. He accord- 

 is, gly st i -peri, and svvam in upon the island 

 while the old ones were away ; and, robbing 

 the nest of its young, he was preparing to swim 

 back, with the eaglets tied in a string ; but 

 while he was yet up to his chin in the water, 

 the old eagles returned, and, missing their 

 young, quickly fell upon the plunderer, and, 

 in spite of all his resistance, despatched him 

 with their beaks and talons. 



In order to extirpate these pernicious birds, 

 there is a law in the Orkney Islands, which 

 entitles any person that kills an eagle to a hen 

 out of every house in the parish in which the 

 plunderer is killed. 



The nest of the eagle is usually built in the 



most inaccessible cliff of the rock, and often 



shielded from the weather by some jutting 



crag that hangs over it. Sometimes, how- 



j ever, it is wholly exposed to the winds, as 



