60 BRITISH LAND BIRDS. 



obtained, unless where the bird has the free and 

 unrestrained range of all its powers." 



Several instances have been recorded of children 

 being seized and carried off by eagles to their 

 young ; and a few such cases seem well authenti- 

 cated as having happened in our own country. 

 Eay relates, that in one of the Orkneys, a child of 

 a year old was seized in the talons of an eagle, 

 and carried about four miles, to its nest. The 

 mother, knowing of the place, pursued the bird, 

 found her child there, and took it away, un- 

 hurt ! In the ' British Zoology' this curious state- 

 ment is given : " It is very unsafe to leave infants 

 in places where eagles frequent, there having been, 

 in Scotland, instances of two being carried off by 

 them. Happily the theft was discovered in time, 

 and the children restored unhurt to their affrighted 

 parents. In order to extirpate these birds, there 

 is a law in the Orkney Isles, which entitles any 

 person who kills an eagle, to a hen, out of every 

 house in the parish in which it was killed." This 

 was written in 1775 ; no wonder eagles have 

 become so scarce now-a-days. 



The eagle has been called " indomitable," but, 

 in some rare instances, even he, the proud wild 

 king of birds, has become docile; and, while 

 writing this, we cannot help remembering the 

 words of the apostle James : " Every kind of 



