THE TAWXY EAGLE. 2G5 



an eagle to a hen out of every house in the parish 

 where it was killed. Eagles seem to give the preference 

 to the carcases of dogs and cats. Those who formerly 

 made it their business to kill these birds fired the 

 instant they alighted, for the eagle at that time looks 

 about before she begins her prey. Yet quick as her 

 sense of sight may be, her hearing seems still better. 

 If hooded crows or ravens happen to be nearer the 

 carrion, and resort to it first, and give a single croak, 

 the eagle instantly repairs to the spot. These eagles are 

 remarkable for their longevity, and for sustaining a long 

 absence from food. Mr. Keysler relates that an eagle 

 died at Vienna after a confinement of 104 years. This 

 length of days seems alluded to by the Psalmist : " thy 

 youth is renewed like the eagle's." A bird in the pos- 

 session of Owen Holland, Esq. furnishes us with a proof 

 how long they can exist without food, having once 

 through the negligence of the servants, endured hunger 

 for twenty-one days, without any sustenance what- 

 ever.* 



The ta-v\Tiy, or white tailed eagle of Edwards, has the 

 whole plumage of a dusky brown ; the breast marked 

 \yith triangular spots of white. The tail is white tipped 

 v.-ith black, but in youngbirds dusky, blotched with white. 

 The leo-s are covered to the toes with soft rust-coloured 



* Whilst shooting, in December 1857, a boatman was fortunate 

 enough to shoot, on the Lower Shannon, Mvith a charge of snipe shot, a 

 fine golden eagle. The bird measured seven feet from tip to tip of its 

 ■nings. It -was blo-wing a gale of wind on the day it was shot, and I 

 suppose that, after a heavy gorge, it was beaten aboiit till it settled for 

 shelter upon Green's Island. It came from the westward (county Kerrj-) 

 direction, perhaps from Killarney. The man crept up a deep ditch 

 within shot. 



