HAWKS AND OWLS. 10 



hawks, but with a long, sharp-pointed stick the watcher 

 deftly poked them off the wolf skin. The ravens were most 

 persistent in trying to perch on the skin, and every time 

 they were poked off would loudly croak. Whenever an eagle 

 was coming the watcher would know it, for all the little 

 birds would fly away, and shortly an eagle would come down 

 with a rush and light on the ground. Often it would sit 

 on the ground for a long time preening its feathers and 

 looking about. During this time the watcher was earnestly 

 praying to the skull and to the sun to give him power to 

 capture the eagle, and all the time his heart was beating so 

 loudly that he thought the bird would surely hear it. At 

 last, when the eagle had perched on the wolf skin and was 

 busily plucking at the tough bull meat, the watcher would 

 cautiously stretch out his hands, and grasping the bird 

 firmly by the feet, quickly bear it down into the cave, where 

 he crushed in its breast with his knee." 



In Scotland the eagle, it is said, is often captured alive 

 by a method very similar to those employed in taking its 

 kindred in South America. A circular space, twelve feet in 

 diameter, is enclosed on a spur of the hills haunted by the 

 birds, and a peat wall six feet high built round it, with one 

 small opening at the level of the ground, over which a strong 

 wire noose is suspended. The bait, a dead sheep or lamb, 

 is placed within, and the eagle coming down to it, feeds 

 largely not wisely, perhaps, but certainly too well and, 

 like many another of superior creation, feels, after the 

 repast, disinclined for any unnecessary exertion, so casting 

 round for an easy place in the barricade, he espies the low 

 archway, and attempting to leave by it is caught round the 

 neck and killed at best a poor end for so gallant a bird. 



