THE EAGLE. 61 



eagle also disdains to share the plunder of another bird ; and wi'l take 

 up with no other prey but that which he has acquired by his own pur- 

 suits. How hungry soever he may be, he never stoops to carrion ; 

 and when satiated, he never returns to the same carcass, but leaves il 

 for other animals, more rapacious and less delicate than he. Solitary, 

 like the lion, he keeps the desert to himself alone ; it is as extraordi- 

 nary 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 do- 

 minion. 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 so- 

 ciety : 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 domestic, 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 fal- 

 coner 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. Some- 

 times, however, they are brought to have an attachment for their 

 feeder ; they are then highly serviceable, and liberally provide for his 

 pleasure 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 il off. Although 

 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 in- 

 stantly pursued, he finds no difficulty in carrying oflf 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 unattended, have been de- 

 stroyed by these rapacious 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 fortunately 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 

 so when bringing up its young. It is then that the female, as well 

 as the male, exert all their force and power of industry to supply their 

 young. Smith, in his History of Kerry, relates that a poor man in 

 that country got a comfortable subsistence for his family, during a 



