THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 57 



Children carried off by eagles. 



the year 1737, in the parish of Norderhougs, in 

 Norway, a boy somewhat more than two years 

 old, was running from the house to his parents, 

 who were at work in the fields at no great dis- 

 tance, when an eagle pounced upon, and flew off 

 with him in their sight. It was with grief and 

 anguish that they beheld their child' dragged 

 away, but all their screams and efforts to prevent 

 it were in vain. Anderson also asserts, that in 

 Iceland "children of four or five years of age have 

 been sometimes taken away by eagles ; and Ray 

 relates, that in one of the Orkneys, a child of 

 twelve months old was seized in the talons of an 

 eagle, and carried above four miles to its nest. 

 The mother, however, knowing the place, pur- 

 sued the bird, found her child in the nest, and 

 took it away unhurt: a circumstance which pro- 

 bably gave rise to one of Hayley's most beautiful 

 ballads. 



The following story is related by a gentleman 

 of unquestionable veracity. While upon his tra- 

 vels in France he was invited by an officer of 

 distinction to pass a few days at his country-seat 

 near Mende; while there the table was every 

 clay plentifully supplied with wild fowl, but he 

 was not a little surprised to observe that not one 

 was srved up which had not undergone some 

 mutilation ; some wanting wings, and others legs 

 or heads. This being so invariably the case, he 

 was at length induced to enquire into the cause; 

 when his host replied it was solely to be attri- 



VOL. III. NO. XVII. H 



