THE EAGLE AND THE CANARY 211 



state of nature. Again, its lively, curious, and 

 extremely impressible character, is in many ways 

 an advantage in captivity; every new sound and 

 sight, and every motion, however slight, in any 

 object or body near it, affording it, so to speak, 

 something to think about. It has the further ad- 

 vantage of a varied and highly musical language ; 

 the frequent exercise of the faculty of singing, in 

 birds, with largely developed vocal organs, no 

 doubt reacts on the system, and contributes not a 

 little to keep the prisoner healthy and cheerful 



On the other hand, the eagle, on account of 

 its structure and large size, is a prisoner indeed, 

 and must languish with all its splendid faculties 

 and importunate impulses unexercised. You may 

 gorge it with gobbets of flesh until its stomach 

 cries, "Enough" ; but what of all the other organs 

 fed by the stomach, and their correlated facul- 

 ties? Every bone and muscle and fibre, every 

 feather and scale, is instinct with an energy which 

 you cannot satisfy, and which is like an eternal 

 hunger. Chain it by the feet, or place it in a 

 cage fifty feet wide in either case it is just as 

 miserable. The illimitable fields of thin cold air, 

 where it outrides the winds and soars exulting be- 



