THE EAGLE. 71 



being contented rather to follow the wild game 

 in the forest, than to risk their safety to satisfy 

 their hunger. 



This fierce animal may be considered among 

 birds as the lion among quadrupeds ; and in 

 many respects they have a strong similitude to 

 each other. They are both possessed of force, 

 and an empire over their fellows of the forest. 

 Equally magnanimous, they disdain smaller plun- 

 der, and only pursue animals worthy the con- 

 quest. It is not till after having been long pro- 

 voked by the cries of the rook or the magpie, 

 that this generous bird thinks fit to punish them 

 with death : the eagle also disdains to share the 

 plunder of another bird ; and will take up with 

 no other prey but that which he has acquired by 

 his own pursuits. How hungry soever he may 

 be, he never stoops to carrion ; and when satiat- 

 ed, he never returns to the same carcass, but 

 leaves it for other animals, more rapacious and 

 less delicate than he. Solitary, like the lion, he 

 keeps the desert to himself alone ; it is as extraor- 

 dinary to see two pair of eagles in the same moun- 

 tain, as two lions in the same forest. They keep 

 separate to find a more ample supply, and con- 

 sider the quantity of their game as the best proof 

 of their dominion. Nor does the similitude of 

 these animals stop here : they have both spark- 

 ling 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 society ; 

 alike fierce, proud, and incapable of being easily 



