MARCH. 



OUR BIRDS OF PREY. 



BY AUBYN TREVOR- BATTYE. 



III. EAGLES, FALCONS AND OSPREY. 



THE Eagle is, by the consent of all nations and of all times, 

 the king of birds. There is probably not a people (to whom the 

 bird is known) among whose traditions it would be possible to 

 find a symbol more constant, a cult more old. When the Roman 

 chose the Eagle for the sign upon his standard he took but that 

 which had been consecrated as an object of piety by religions that 

 had died before Rome was born. Once the "lightning-bearer" 

 of Olympian Jove, the Eagle is still the Christian's symbol of 

 inspiration, and is propitiated as a deity by the Indian of the 

 Pueblo tribes. 



All this is not surprising, for the Eagle has characteristics that 

 compel respect. The dignity of his presence, the grandeur of his 

 flight, the solitude of his surroundings seem to crown him royal, 

 and him alone. 



The very name of the Golden Eagle would have done much, 

 no doubt, with us to give him this identity from our earliest 

 childhood's day, even if he had never proved his title by flying 

 away, in the story books, with babies to his nest. Not that 



