248 



ACCIPITRES. BIRDS. FALCONID^E. 



and it appears to delight in soaring to a great height in the 

 air. But even when the bird is at such an elevation as 

 to appear only like a small black speck in the sky, the 

 acuteness of its vision is so great, that it can readily 

 discover its prey upon the ground below it, when it will 

 descend with the most astonishing velocity to seize its 

 victim. Its great strength enables it to prey upon crea- 

 tures whose size would prevent them from being attacked, 

 or at all events being carried off by any of the smaller 

 Falconidse, and although it does not contemn such 

 small game as partridges and grouse, it destroys lambs, 

 even when several weeks old, and young fawns, which 

 its great muscular power enables it even to carry off in 

 its talons to its nest among the rocks. Hares and rab- 

 bits also constitute a considerable portion of its food. 



The eagle is, in fact, the great tyrant of the wild regions 

 which he inhabits, but as we must bear in mind that 

 nothing that he can meet with there has any power of 

 defending itself from his terrible swoop, we must not 

 allow ourselves, as our forefathers did, to magnify him 

 into a type of magnanimity and courage. This view 

 is Induced by the magnificent aspect of the bird, and 

 the abundant evidences of terrible energy furnished 

 by his every movement; in true courage he is not supe- 

 rior to most of the smaller hawks, and certainly inferior 

 to the peregrine and many other falcons, which will 

 even venture to attack and drive away this so-called 

 monarch of the waste, when he approaches too neai 

 their nests. 



The Golden eagle, as already stated, is an inhabitant 



The Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaiitos). 



of mouiitainoua regions, in the wild fastnesses of which 

 lie dwells in solitary state, far from the habitations of 

 man. On the highest and most inaccessible ledges of 

 the rocks the eagles build their nests, or eyries, which 

 consist of a vast assemblage of sticks, forming a flat 

 platform of several feet in diameter. Upon this the 

 female deposits two, or at the utmost three eggs, which 

 are of a dirty-white colour, mottled with pale reddish- 

 brown. The eggs are laid about the end of March or 

 the beginning of April, and in the course of a month the 



young eaglets are hatched. During their growth the 

 parent birds are indefatigable in attending upon them 

 and supplying them with food ; and such an abundant 

 supply of game do they bring into the nest, that we are 

 told of one instance in which a native of Kerry obtained 

 a comfortable subsistence for himself and his family 

 throughout a summer of scarcity, by robbing the nest 

 of an eagle of the food brought for the support of the 

 young birds, whose wings he clipped in order to retard 

 their flight, and thus prolong the attendance of the 



