90 EAGLE. 



posed. Its flight is majestic, and so rapid, that the stroke 

 of the wings will sometimes kill the prey, before the 

 eagle has touched it with its claws. It is so strong as 

 easily to tear in pieces the largest sheep, and to pursue 

 the wild as well as tame beasts ; it will even attack man ; 

 it feeds principally on monkeys, which it kills and devours 

 with great voracity. It generally resides in lofty moun- 

 tains, where it is said to build its nest of the bones of the 

 animals it has eaten. It is chiefly found on the banks of 

 the river Amazon. 



THE RING-TAILED EAGLE 



Is of a very dark brown colour ; the upper half of the 

 base of the tail is white. The skin of the beak and the 

 legs are yellow. It measures three feet in length, and 

 upwards of seven in breadth. It is a native both of Europe 

 and North America. In these islands it is most common 

 in Scotland where it commits great havoc amongst the 

 smaller animals, seizing even roebucks. The parents 

 build a nest of large sticks, lined with rushes and heath ; 

 they feed their young very diligently till they are able to 

 leave the eyry. The egrets are fed on the choicest food, 

 all sorts of wild game and domestic poultry. 



Several instances are recorded of children being seized 

 and carried off by eagles to their young : 



In Norway, a boy, somewhat more than two years old, 

 was going from the house to his parents, who were at work 

 in a field at no great distance, when an eagle pounced 

 upon the little unfortunate, and, to the unutterable grief of 

 his disconsolate parents, flew oft" with him in their sight ! 

 Anderson, in his History of Iceland, says, that in that 

 island children of four or five years of age have been some- 

 times taken away by the eagles ; and Ray observes, that 

 in one of the Orknies a child of a year old was seized by 

 the talons of an eagle, and carried above four miles to its 

 nest ; but the mother, knowing the place, pursued the 

 rapacious bird, found the child in the nest, and saved it 

 uninjured ! 



