52 THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



of its chain ; when, recollecting the insult, the enraged Animal flew in 

 his face with so much fury and violence, that he was terribly wounded, 

 but was driven so far back by the blow, as to be out of further danger. 

 The screams of the Eagle alarmed the family ; who found the man 

 lying at some distance, covered with blood, and equally stunned with 

 the fright and the fall. The Bird was still pacing and screaming in a 

 manner not less threatening than majestic ; and, shortly, afterwards 

 he broke his chain and escaped. 



The Golden Eagles build their nests on elevated rocks, ruinous and 

 solitary castles and towers, and other sequestered places. The nest 

 is quite flat ; and not hollow, like the nests of other birds. The male 

 and female commonly place it between two rocks, in a dry and 

 inaccessible situation. The same nest, it is said, serves the Eagle 

 during life. Its form resembles that of a floor. Its basis consists of 

 sticks about five or six feet in length, which are supported at eacL 

 end ; and these are covered with several layers of rushes and heath. 



An Eagle's nest which was, some years ago, found in the Peak of 

 Derbyshire, was made of great sticks, and one end of it rested on the 

 edge of a rock, the other on a birch-tree. Upon these was a layer of 

 rushes, over them a layer of heath, and on the heath rushes again ; 

 upon which lay one young Eagle, and an addle egg ; and by them a 

 Lamb, a Hare, and three heath pouts. The nest was about two yards 

 square, and had no hollow in it. 



The females never lay more than two or three eggs. These they 

 hatch in thirty days. They feed their young ones with the slain 

 carcasses of such small animals as come in their way ; and, though they 

 are at all times formidable, they are particularly so while bringing up 

 their offspring. 



It is said that once during a summer of famine, a countryman got a 

 comfortable subsistence for his family out of an Eagle's nest. He pro- 

 tracted the assiduity of the old birds beyond their usual time, by 

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

 and tying them so as to increase their cries, which are always found to 

 increase the dispatch of the parents in supplying their wants. It was 

 fortunate for him that the old ones did not detect the plunderer, 

 otherwise their resentment might have proved fatal. A peasant, not 

 many years ago, resolved to rob an Eagle's nest, which he knew to be 

 built on a small island in the beautiful lake of Killarney. He stripped 

 himself for this purpose, and swam over when the old birds were gone: 

 but, in his return, while yet up to the chin in water, the parents, coming 

 home, and missing their offspring, quickly fell on the plunderer, and 

 tilled him on the spot. 



Several instances have been recorded of children being seized and 

 carried off to their nests by Eagles. In the year 1737, in the parish 

 of Norderhougs, in Norway, a boy somewhat more than two years old, 

 was running from the house to his parents, who were at work in the 

 fields at no great distance, when an Eagle pounced upon and flew off 

 with him, in their sight. It was with bitterest anguish they beheld 

 their child dragged away, but all their screams and efforts to prevent it 

 were in vain. Anderson, in his History of Iceland, says, that in that 



