Hi (IDS. 



5S 



and support. When the lalcoiier lets them go from his hand, 

 they play iiboiit and hover ruuiid him till their game presents, 

 which tlicy see at an immense distance, and pursue with certain 

 destruction. 



Of all animals the eagle tlies highest ; and from thence the 

 bncients have given him the epithet of the bird of heaven. Ot 

 all others also, he has the quicke^t eye ; but his sense of smell- 

 ing is far inferior to that of the vulture. He never pursues, 

 therefore, but in sight ; and when he has seized his prey, he 

 stoops from his height, as if to examine its weight, always lay< 

 ing it on the ground before he carries it off. As his wing is 

 very powerful, yet, as he has but little suppleness in the joints 

 of the leg, he fuids it difficult to rise when down ; however, if 

 not instantly pursued, he finds no difficulty in carrying off geese 

 and cranes. He also carries away hares, lambs, and kids ; and 

 often destroys fawns and calves, to drink their blood, and car- 

 ries a part of their flesh to his retreat. Infants themselves, 

 when left unattended, have been destroyed by these rapacious 

 creatures •, which probably gave rise to the fable of Ganymede's 

 being snatched up by an eagle to heaven. 



An instance is recorded in Scotland of two children being 

 carried off by eagles ; but fortunately they received no hurt by 

 the way -, and, the eagles being pursued, the children were re- 

 stored unhurt out of the nests to the affrighted parents. • 



The eagle is thus at all times a formidable neighbour; but 

 peculiarly when bringing up its young. It is then that the fe- 

 male, as well as the male, exert all their force and industry to 

 supply their young. Smith, in his history of Kerry, relates, that 

 a poor man in that country got a comfortable subsistence for his 

 family, during a summer of famine, out of an eagle's nest, byro'o- 

 bing the eaglets of food, which was plentifully supplied by the old 

 ones. He protracted their assiduity beyond the usual time, by 

 clipping their wings, and retarding the flight of the young; and 

 very probably also, as I have known myself, by so tying them 

 as to increase their cries, which is always found to increase the 

 parent's despatch to procure them provision. It was lucky, 

 however, that the old eagles did not surprise the country-man as 



* Ray relates, that in one of the Orkneys, a child of a year old was seized 

 by an eagle, an<l carried about four miles to its nest. The raother pursued 

 It, foimd her child in Uie nest, and took it away uiUivu-t 



