16 GOLDEN EAGLE. 



lightning, though sometimes in doing so, it will make several 

 spiral turns at intervals, as if to break the extreme violence 

 of the shock of its fall. If it does not then at once discern 

 its victim, which has, perhaps, attempted to hide itself, it 

 peers about with its outstretched neck in every direction, when, 

 if it again catch a glimpse of it, as it is almost sure to do, 

 it is down upon it directly with extended legs, and scarce 

 seeming to touch it, bears it off in triumph. It usually thus 

 secures the animal, seizing it before it can even attempt to 

 escape, or perhaps paralyzed through fear, but occasionally, as 

 in the instances hereafter stated, follows in pursuit. One is 

 mentioned which was seen hovering above a hare, which it 

 frightened from bush to bush, until at last it forced it to 

 leave its cover, and attempt escape, when it was almost 

 immediately overtaken and pounced upon. 



It is a curious fact that two Eagles will sometimes course 

 a hare together one flying directly over it, and the other 

 following it near the ground; and one has been known to 

 stoop at a hare pursued by the hounds, and to carry it off, a 

 hundred yards before them a singular realization of the fable 

 of Tantalus. 



The female is noisy and clamorous at the approach of spring, 

 and also before wet or stormy weather. 



The food of the Eagle consists principally of the smaller 

 animals, such as sheep, lambs, fawns, rabbits, and rats, as 

 also of birds, such as blackcock, grouse, and sea-gulls. It 

 does not hesitate, however, on occasion, to attack larger game, 

 but assails with characteristic resoluteness even roebucks and 

 other deer. It is said to fix itself on the head of the victim 

 it has aimed at, and to flap with its wings in the animal's 

 eyes, until in distraction it is driven over some precipice, or 

 into some morass, where it then becomes a secure and easy 

 prey. One was seen flying in one of the Orkney Islands with 

 a pig in its talons, which it dropped alive when fired at. 

 Another, in Ireland, alighted and carried off a lamb, with 

 which it flew in a straight direction towards its haunt in the 

 Mourne mountains. There arrived, it was seen to soar upwards, 

 probably towards its nest, but dropped the lamb at the edge 

 of a wood, and it was recovered unhurt the distance flown 

 was reckoned to be more than two miles with this burden to 

 support. There are at least three authenticated instances of 

 their having carried off children in this country one of these 

 in one of the Orkney Islands, and another in the Isle of Skye, 



