THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



95 



Golden Eagle. 



Ireland, where notwith- 

 standing its wild and ap- 

 parently un tarn cable cha- 

 racter, one was taken even 

 after it had attained ma- 

 turity. It soon became 

 domesticated, and firmly 

 attached to the place, where 

 it continued till it died, 

 though perfectly at liberty, 

 it never having been chained, 

 or put under any restraint. 

 Its wings had, indeed, been 

 cut when first brought 

 thither, but they were al- 

 lowed to grow again; and 

 the noble bird, on recovering the use of them, would re- 

 peatedly soar away, and absent himself for a fortnight 

 or three weeks. It became very much attached to those 

 who were in the habit of feeding or caressing it. On its 

 first arrival it had been placed in a garden, situated on 

 a slope overhanging a lake ; a house or shed had also been 

 built for its accommodation; but it generally preferred 

 a perch of its own finding out, in the branch of a large 

 apple tree, which grew in nearly a horizontal position from 

 the stem. Its food was chiefly crows, which were shot for it ; 

 sometimes, however, it attempted to procure them for itself, 

 but never successfully, as their agility in turning short and 

 rapidly enabled them to elude its superior strength of wing ; 

 latterly, therefore, it contented itself with eyeing them wist- 

 fully as they flew or perched securely over its head. It was 

 never suspected of committing any havoc among the sheep or 

 lambs in the adjoining fields ; but now and then, when from 

 some accident it had not been regularly supplied with its 

 accustomed food, it would seize upon and kill young pigs. 

 Children, who constantly met it as it walked about the gar- 

 den, were never molested ; but on one occasion it attacked its 



