THE ZooLoGisT—NOVEMBER, 1876. 5135 
of the hand to his legs and plumage, and permitted itself to be 
handled in any way. As one of the first steps towards training 
this eagle for the chase, it was hooded after the manner of a hunting 
hawk, but the practice was soon abandoned as unnecessary, in 
consequence of its remaining quiet and contented when carried on 
the arm of its master. It was unwilling indeed to leave him even 
to take a flight, unless some special ‘ quarry’ was in view. When 
at liberty for the day, and my friend appeared in sight at any 
distance, his arm was no sooner held out towards the affectionate 
bird than it came hurriedly flying to perch upon it.” 
This, as I have said, was a most exceptional instance of tameness, 
and even affection, in an eagle, and deserves to have a more ex- 
tended circulation than it could obtain in Mr. Thompson’s volumes 
on the ‘ Birds of Ireland’—a good work, but very little known. 
Eagles are at especial pains to drive their young from the neigh- 
bourhood as soon as they can shift for themselves; hence arises 
the fact, which I think was first noticed by Mr. Stevenson, that 
nearly all the eagles that have been shot or trapped in different 
parts of the United Kingdom, are very young and in immature 
plumage. The knowledge of this habit of the eagle is, however, 
very much older than Mr. Stevenson’s time; indeed, it is mentioned 
so long ago as Turberville’s ‘ Booke of Falconrie,’ printed in 1575. 
The author first explains how the parent eagles teach their young 
to “kyll their praye and feede themselves”—in which, by the way, 
1 believe he is mistaken, for killing and feeding “ come by nature,” 
as a philosopher once solemnly enunciated of reading and writing ; 
this is parenthetical, of course, but reverting to Turberville, he goes 
on to explain that, “ No sooner hath she [the female parent] made 
them perfit, and thoroughly scooled them therein, but presently 
she chaseth them out of that coaste, and doth abandon them the 
place where they were eyred, and will in no wise brooke them to 
abide neare hir, to the ende that the countrey where she discloseth 
and maketh her eyrie, bee not unfurnished of convenient pray, 
which by the number and excessive store of eagles might otherwise 
be spoiled and made bare. For the avoyding of which, this pro- 
vident and carefull soule doth presently force her broode to depart 
into some other part and region.” 
In the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1846 there is a curious account of an 
eagle and of the way in which it was obtained:— Some boys 
having thrown out a line and hook into the sea, baited with a 
