246 THE EAGLE, 



unwrapped, he lodged himself upon a screen, where he re- 

 mained twelve entire hours without once resting on his un- 

 sound foot. During all this time he made no attempt to 

 escape, though the windows were open. Yet he rejected all 

 nourishment until the thirteenth day of his captivity, when 

 he tried his appetite upon a rabbit which had been given to 

 him. He seized it with his uninjured claw, and killed it with 

 a stroke of his beak between the head and the first vertebra 

 of the neck. After having devoured it, he resumed his usual 

 place upon the screen, from whence he stirred no more until 

 the twenty-first day after his accident. Then he began to 

 try the wounded limb ; and without in the least deranging 

 the ligature by which it was bound, he has regained the use 

 of it by moderate and reasonable exercise. This interesting 

 creature has passed three months in the room of the servant 

 who attended to him. As soon as the fire was lighted he 

 came up to it, and suffered himself to be caressed ; at bed- 

 time he mounted his screen, as close as possible to the attend- 

 ant's bed, but removed to the opposite extremity as soon as 

 the lamp went out. Confidence in his own powers appeared 

 to exempt him from any kind of distrust. It is impossible to 

 show more resignation, more courage, and one might almost 

 be tempted to say, more reason, than was exhibited by this 

 Eagle during the long continuance of his illness. He is of 

 the most beautiful kind, and does not appear to experience 

 the least weakness in consequence of the accident which 

 robbed him of liis liberty." 



The great Eagle is very destructive to lambs, young deer, 

 kids, hares, poultry, &c. Low, in his " Fauna Orcadensis," 

 says, that they do not abstain from pork in the Orkneys, but 

 occasionally seize both old and young swine. A clergyman 

 told him that he had seen one, mounted in the air, with a 

 pretty large pig in his talons, which she let fall alive when he 

 fired at her. Martin, in his " Description of the Western Is- 

 lands of Scotland," published in 1716, speaking of this bird, 

 says " The Eagles are very destructive to the fawns and 

 lambs. The natives observe that it fixes its talons between 



