198 THE KECLUSE. 



the islands of the Amazon to shoot spoonbills, ibises, and 

 other of the magnificent grallatorial birds, which were 

 most abundant there. His design was completely baffled, 

 however, by a wretched little sandpiper, that preceded 

 him, continually uttering its tell-tale cry, which at once 

 aroused all the birds within hearing. Throughout the 

 day did this individual bird continue its self-imposed duty 

 of sentinel to others, effectually preventing the approach 

 of the fowler to the game, and yet managing to keep out 

 of the reach of his gun. 



There is, however, in some animals, a tendency to seek 

 safety in an entire avoidance of the presence of man ; a 

 jealous shyness which cannot bear to be even looked at, 

 and which prompts the creature to haunt the most recluse 

 and solitary places. This disposition invests them with a 

 poetic interest. The loneliness of the situations which 

 they choose for their retreats has in itself a charm, and 

 the rarity with which we can obtain a glimpse of them in 

 their solitudes makes the sight proportionally gratifying 

 when we can obtain it. 



The golden eagle seeks for its eyrie, the peak of some 

 inaccessible rock, far from the haunts of man, whose do- 

 main it shuns. Here it forms its platform-nest, rearing 

 its young in. awful silence and solitude, unbroken even by 

 the presence of bird or beast ; for these it jealously drives 

 from its neighbourhood. The bald eagle of North Ame- 

 rica achieves the same end by selecting the precipices of 

 cataracts for its abode. Lewis and Clarke have described * 



* Expedition, i., p. 264. 



