58 THE EAGLE AND ITS VICTIM. 



With the mastery of his victim came forth the display 

 of his own excited nature, in the elevated head, the 

 feathers of the neck stiff and erect, the wings flickering 

 and spread to make the victory complete ; then the 

 epigastric section by its beak with quick despatch of 

 thoracic contents, the disembowelling and carrying the 

 strings of the intestines to its mouth with a rapidity 

 worthy of the hungry Neapolitan swallowing mac- 

 caroni, and finally tearing off the muscular parts and 

 leaving but skin and skeleton as vestiges of the feast. 

 What a study of animal life within the Anstruther 

 cage ! The eagle in royal ease, the cat appalled, the 

 descent from the perch, the clutch and death- stroke ; 

 the nobility of triumph evidenced in eyes of light, 

 coloured radiance, and high feather ; the evisceration, 

 the feasting amidst hot blood, and the steamy vapours 

 of vitality and quivering muscles mocking life in death, 

 — constituted a picture as generic as it was grandly 

 exciting and picturesque to behold. The eagle's love 

 for things of the flesh would have caused the death of 

 a child incautiously brought by its mother too near 

 the cage, the wooden paling of which gave way under 

 the impetuous dash of the ravenous bird, had not 

 Harry Goodsir come to the rescue. 



The brothers Goodsir tamed a seal and fed it on 

 milk ; it had its reservoir of sea-water. Then there 

 were the great king-crab, chameleons, and other animals, 

 which constituted a small menagerie and fresh sights 

 for the privileged folk of Anstruther. 



On February 18, 1839, Edward Forbes writes to 



