THE EAGLE. 73 



he finds no difficulty in carrying off 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 un- 

 attended, have been destroyed 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 fortu- 

 nately 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 particularly when bringing up its 

 young. It is then that the female, as well as the 

 male, exert all their force and industry to supply 

 their young. Smith, in his History of Kerry, re- 

 lates, that a poor man in that country got a com- 

 fortable subsistence for his family, during a sum- 

 mer of famine, out of an eagle's nest, by robbing 

 the eaglets of food, which was plentifully supplied 

 by the old ones. He protracted their assiduity 

 beyond the usual time, by clipping the wings, and 

 retarding the flight of the young, and very pro- 

 bably also, as I have known myself, by so tying 

 them as to increase their cries, which is always 

 found to increase the parent's dispatch to procure 

 them provision. It was lucky, however, that the 

 old eagles did not surprise the countryman as he 

 was thus employed, as their resentment might 

 have been dangerous. 



