124 THE EAGLE. 



Another such case occurred to a gentleman in 

 America; he, like the gamekeeper, saw an Eagle 

 seize its prey and fly off, and soon afterwards rise 

 spirally to an immense height till nearly out of 

 sight, and then fall to the earth like a stone. As 

 he approached, he saw a weasel running away from 

 the body, and, on further examination, found that 

 the little animal had got under the Eagle's wing and 

 sucked the blood, until the bird fell from exhaustion. 

 Another case is on record, of one of these birds 

 attacking a cat, when a battle actually took place in 

 the air, and lasted some minutes. The cat, aware, 

 it may be supposed, of her clanger, clung with her 

 claws to the Eagle, and prevented him from letting 

 her drop. At length, tired of struggling, and im- 

 peded by the clinging of the cat, he descended to the 

 earth, where the fight still continued; and, in the 

 end, some lookers on captured both the combatants. 

 A cat, however, if once within the fair grasp of an 

 Eagle on firm ground has but a poor chance. One, 

 tempted probably by some pieces of raw meat, was 

 seen to make its way through the lattice-work of a 

 large hut in which a fine Golden Eagle had been 

 long kept. In an instant, the bird was observed to 

 pounce from his perch and seize poor puss so rudely 

 and suddenly with his claw, that, notwithstanding 

 the vivacious nature of the cat species, she was 

 killed in a moment, without an appearance of strug- 

 gling, or even quivering of her limbs. The entire 

 claw seemed to have been plunged in a moment into 

 the tenderest part of her body. Having secured his 

 victim beyond power of escape, he remounted his 

 perch to pause and look about him, and then, again 



