EAGLES AND ART. 265 



petty torture ! But what wonder ! A Lion would turn tail 

 upon an angry Hornet, and a Hector or an Ajax himself be 

 routed by a hungry Flea beneath his armor ! With every 

 other sin upon its head, the bird is not a coward for the 

 incident which Mr. Audubon gives further in proof of this, 

 is not, as we conceive, altogether a fair case in point. The 

 liability to panic, when suddenly aroused by any new and 

 extraordinary presentation, is a well-known weakness of the 

 mere physical courage. 



He says, " When these birds are suddenly and unexpect- 

 edly approached or surprised, they exhibit a great degree of 

 cowardice. They rise at once and fly off very low in zig- 

 zag lines to some distance, uttering a hissing noise, not at all 

 like their usual disagreeable imitation of a laugh." 



This is not by any means our interpretation of this inci- 

 dent. The zig-zag line in flying off, seems to us rather to 

 express the instinctive caution of rapacious creatures, who, 

 when aroused perhaps from secure slumbers see in the 

 unusual object, of course, a formidable enemy, and with the 

 prompt suggestiveness of that most alert of the instincts, dart 

 hither and yon, to distract any murderous aim which may 

 pursue it while the hissing sound as they go off, is the 

 earliest expression of angry defiance, the combative impulse 

 of the Eaglet in the eyrie knew. It is rather a case of panic 

 than of cowardice, and the history of many of the most fear- 

 less warriors the world has known, will furnish similar in- 

 stances ! 



No, the White-headed Eagle is not a coward. The charge 

 has as little base upon consistencies and the nature of things 

 as a similar one so frequently urged against Napoleon 

 though while the daring of the Eagle is physical, that of the 

 Eagle-man is spiritual. 



Shelley, at all events, saw it to be sufficient as an emblem 

 of the exulting energies of Freedom. That Freedom he had 

 watched with many yearnings grow apace in youthful lusti- 

 hood, subjugating the savage wildernesses of the New World 



