58 THE EAGLE'S FLIGHT. 



and at a speed of upwards of thirty-six yards per second. 

 We assured ourselves of the accuracy of this fact during 

 an ascent of Mount Hochkcerpf, in the canton of Claris. 

 The bird traversed in six minutes a space of 40,000 Swiss 

 feet, which is equal to about forty yards per second. This 

 result agrees, on the whole, with the observations of a 

 traveller, who wrote in the Nouvelle Gazette de Zurich, on 

 the 26th of August 1863 : 



"A society of tourists set out from Corri to climb the 

 Stiitzerhorn, which is 8400 feet in height. From the sum- 

 mit they perceived an enormous eagle, which, having taken 

 his flight from Calanda, beyond the Rhine, directed his 

 course towards the Stiitzerhorn, for the purpose of halting, 

 after a certain inflection, on the side of the Rothhorn." 



The duration of the flight was five minutes; the interval 

 between the starting-point and the point of arrival, two 

 French leagues and a half. In three hundred seconds, 

 therefore, the eagle must have traversed a space of 3000 

 Swiss feet, which is equal to a speed of forty-five yards 

 per second. Hence, the swiftness of the eagle's flight is 

 nearly equal to the velocity of sound. 



One of the most admirable descriptions of the habits of 

 this bird with which we are acquainted, is furnished by the 

 well-known naturalist Macgillivray : 



"There he stands" on his lonely crag "nearly erect, 

 with his tail depressed, his large wings half raised by his 

 side, his neck stretched out, and his eye glistening as he 

 glances around. Like other robbers of the desert, he has 



