CHAP. HI.] DEATH OF AN EAGLE. 37 



distance of twenty yards. The small shot struck him severely, 

 and, dropping his legs, he rose into the air, darting upwards nearly 

 perpendicularly, a perfect cloud of feathers coming out of him. 

 He then came wheeling in a stupified manner back over our 

 heads. "We both of us fired together at him, and down he fell 

 with one wing broken, and hit all over with our small shot. He 

 struggled hard to keep up with the other wing, but could not do 

 so, and came heavily to the ground within a yard of the edge of 

 the precipice. He fell over on his back at first, and then rising 

 up on his feet, looked round with an air of reproachful defiance. 

 The blood was dropping slowly out of his beak, when Donald 

 foolishly ran to secure him, instead of leaving him to die where he 

 was ; in consequence of his doing so, the eagle fluttered back a 

 few steps, still, however, keeping his face to the foe. But, coming 

 to the edge of the precipice, he fell backwards over it, and we saw 

 him tumbling and struggling downwards, as he strove to cling to 

 the projections of the rock but in vain, as he came to no stop till 

 he reached the bottom, where we beheld him, after regaining his 

 feet for a short time, sink gradually to the ground. It was im- 

 possible for us to reach the place where he lay dead without 

 going so far round that the daylight would have failed us. I 

 must own, notwithstanding the reputed destructiveness of the 

 eagle, that I looked with great regret at the dead body of the 

 noble bird, and wished that I had not killed him, the more 

 especially as I was obliged to leave him to rot uselessly in that 

 inaccessible place. 



