1 2 FALCONID.E. 



cond grasp, but to clutch more firmly its unfortunate prey. 

 But yet the menagerie, or the confined cage, is but a poor 

 substitute for his home on the mountain, plunderer and spoiler 

 though he be. Perched upon the rock of his native wilds, 

 he stands motionless, the neck closely retracted to the shoul- 

 der, and, like a true pirate, concealing his weapons of de- 

 struction : the talons are almost completely enveloped with the 

 feathers of the abdomen. The lanceolate feathers on his 

 neck resemble a golden collar, as if placed there by nature, 

 to symbolize his royalty, whilst he remains perching for 

 hours upon the same rock he had frequented for an age. But 

 now, amid the silence of those grey rocks, the wings are 

 slightly drooped, and he utters his shrill, impatient, "kleeking" 

 note. Again they are folded up, each feather trimmed, and 

 the crusted blood rubbed from his beak as he glides down, 

 and, after a few hurried flaps, sails majestically to his foray. 

 True for thee, O Ossian : "It was a source of delight to be- 

 hold the eagle, and listen to her lonely scream." 



Associated with the grandest sublimity of nature in the 

 haunts he frequents, the nobility of this " strong sovereign 

 of the plumy race" has been acknowledged equally in the 

 eagle and hawk-headed divinities of the ancient Egyptians, 

 as in the bird of Jove of the heathen mythology. Prized 

 by rude and uncivilized nations, as presenting to their minds 

 the most perfect resemblance of their own lawless living, 

 the young Indian brave watches eagerly for the auspicious 

 moment that its feathers should adorn his head-dress or his 

 calumet ; and, similarly, the Highland chieftain, or the na- 

 tive prince of our own land, would as soon have been desti- 

 tute of dirk or skene as the feathers that graced the bonnet 

 of one, and the " beareadh" of the other. Symbolized by the 

 warlike nations of every age, the eagle has been displayed 

 upon their banners and standards as an emblem of their 

 power ; and yet is he worthy of the notice which has been 

 lavished upon him, even although a Bedouin of the hill side, 

 with each man's hand against him. 



Indigenous. 



SPECIES 11 THE SPOTTED EAGLE. 

 eAquila .ncevia. Briss. 



' V /(- .*!, 



. _3 eagle, of such excessive rarity that asingle 



specimen has only been obtained in Great Britain, was captured 

 in January, 1845, in Cork. Coming under the notice of Mr. 

 R. Davis of Clonmel, it was shot whilst preying upon a rab- 



