96 THE EAGLE. 



master with some violence, in consequence, as it was supposed, 

 of his having neglected to bring it some bread or other food 

 it was accustomed to receive from his hand. At length, after 

 having lived about ten or twelve years in this way, it was killed 

 by a powerful and ferocious mastiff. Nobody saw the battle, 

 but it mast have been long and bravely contested, for the dog, 

 though victorious, was so severely wounded that it died almost 

 immediately afterwards. 



The weight of a large Eagle is about twelve pounds, 

 though some (as the Bird of Washington) weigh fourteen 

 pounds and a half, rather more than an average-sized 

 Goose. But in order to transport this weight with their 

 extraordinary occasional speed of 140 miles or more per 

 hour, which it has been proved these birds can accomplish, 

 there is a prodigious spread of wing, from seven to upwards 

 of ten feet from tip to tip, in addition to a muscular power 

 almost incredible. 



An Eagle has been known to strike and kill its prey 

 with a stroke of its pinions before it touched them with its 

 claws. Many people have, however, doubted whether they 

 have sufficient strength to carry off children and lambs ; and 

 if such belief rested only on one or two instances, it might be 

 reasonably questioned ; but so many well-authenticated cases 

 have been mentioned as having occurred in places widely 

 distant, that we do not see how the fact can be denied. 



Bishop Heber, in his travels in India, passed through 

 a mountainous district where sad complaints were made 

 of their carrying off infant children ; and we remember some 

 years ago, in the Alps, that on a high-pointed pinnacle of 

 inaccessible rock, jutting out from a peak of snow near the 

 summit of the Jung Frau, one of the highest of the Alpine 

 range of mountains, there might be seen the tattered remains 

 of the clothing of a poor child, who had been carried up by 

 a Lsemmergeyer, or Bearded Vulture, from a valley below, in 

 spite of the shouts of some peasants who saw the bird pounce 

 upon its prize. It is called the Bearded Vulture from the 

 tufts of bristles on each cheek, as represented in the figure 

 at p. 27. 



