THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 67 



In America is also found the Golden Eagle, that mosfc 

 magnificent of liis tribe. He sails through the expanse of 

 air with a powerful and majestic flight, and rises to such a 

 lofty elevation that to the eye he appears a mere speck 

 against the "ethereal blue." Yet such is his keenness of 

 vision, that even at this height he can readily discover his 

 prey upon the ground below him, and will descend with a 

 wonderful velocity and certainty to seize it. His strength 

 renders him a formidable enemy to young lambs and fawns, 

 which he carries off in his talons to his eyrie among the 

 rocks. Hares and rabbits, grouse and partridge, are also 

 among his prey. 



Though he has been celebrated by the poets as the type 

 of magnanimity and courage, this splendid bird is, in truth, 

 but a sorry creature. He is not the nobler or the happier 

 for his swiftness of flight and his apparent supremacy over 

 the other denizens of air. Like most robbers and vaga- 

 bonds, he lives a life of wretchedness, poverty, and solitude. 

 We believe, with Benjamin Franklin, that he is a mean 

 and pitiful coward, whom the tiniest wren does not fear to 

 attack with a courageous heart, and to drive from its 

 neighbourhood. His magnanimity, like that of the lion, is 

 one of the fictions of Natural History ; and the undeserved 

 reputation both the bird and the beast have obtained is a 

 proof of the extent to which man is deluded by "appear- 

 ances." 



Yet the American eagle is not without its " good quali- 

 ties." Like its European congener, it rarely lives alone; 

 and the mutual attachment of male and female seems to 

 endure from the moment of their first union down to the 



