TASTE OF CARNIVOROUS BIRDS. 141 



will, it only made one meal a day. I found by 

 weighing what it ate, that thirty ounces of flesh 

 served it one day with another. This species of 

 eagle is provided with a very large craw, which of 

 course is the first receptacle of food, and when it was 

 at liberty to eat its fill, this was generally distended to 

 a larger size than that of a turkey-cock full of grain ; 

 it gradually contracts in proportion as the flesh passes 

 into the stomach, just as it happens in common fowls. 

 " It is said by several celebrated naturalists and 

 physiologists, that the eagle when unable to procure 

 flesh will feed upon bread. To ascertain this point 

 I made various experiments. I first set before the 

 bird both flesh and wheaten bread ; and finding that 

 it ran towards the flesh without even casting a look 

 upon the bread, I set only the latter before it, and 

 this after a day's fast, when it must have been pressed 

 by hunger. When I had prolonged the fast to the 

 fourth day, the bird ran towards me as I opened the 

 door of the apartment, but with no other view than 

 to ask food. I offered it a piece of bread, but in 

 vain ; for, without even touching it, it returned to the 

 place where it stood before my coining in. I might 

 have carried the trial still further, but was afraid of 

 the animal sinking under it. I therefore abandoned 

 this mode of experiment, and concealed the bread in 

 some flesh, as I had done in my experiment with the 

 falcon, and had recourse to the same expedient, when- 

 ever I was desirous that my eagle should take tubes 

 and other substances. For though this ferocious bird 

 was exceedingly gentle towards me, who was his 

 feeder, yet it might have been hazardous to irritate 

 him, and that would have been unavoidable if I had 

 opened the beak and thrust bread down the throat 

 by force. The first portion of bread which the eagle 

 swallowed concealed by flesh, amounted to half an 

 ounce. Indigestible bodies, such as feathers, used 



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