30 THE IMPERIAL EAGLE. 



the services of the Eagle, for its weight is so great tliat it could not be conveyed to and from 

 the field of action without considerable inconvenience. In more modern times the Golden 

 Eagle has been snccessf ally trained to catch game. A gentleman in Huntingdonshire suc- 

 ceeded in taming a Golden Eagle, which he taught to chase hares and rabbits ; and several 

 other examples are on record. 



Owing to the expnnse of the wings and the great i^ower of the muscles, the flight of this 

 bird is peculiarly bold, striking, and graceful. It sweeps thi-ough the air in a succession of 

 spiral curves, rising with every spire, and making no perceptible motion with its wings, until 

 it has attained an altitude at which it is hardly visible. From that post of vantage the Eagle 

 marks the ground below, and sweeps down Avith lightning rapidity upon bird or beast that 

 may happen to take its fancy. It is not, however, so active at rising from the ground as 

 might be imagined, and can be disabled by a comparatively slight injury on the wing. One 

 of these birds, that was detected by a young shepherd boy in the act of devouring some dead 

 sheep, was disabled by a pebble hurled at it from a sling, and was at last ignominiously stoned 

 to death. 



When gorged with food the Eagle dislikes the exertion of flying, and generally runs for- 

 ward a few paces before taking to flight. The Scotch shepherds have discovered this pro- 

 l^ensity, and have invented a very ingenious trap, which is made so as to take advantage of 

 this habit. 



A circular inclosure is liuilt of stone, about four feet in height, without any roof, and 

 with a small door on one of its sides. A dead sheep is then thrown into the centre of the 

 inclosure, and a noose adjusted round the door. The Eagle soon discerns the sheep, and after 

 making a few circles in the air, alights upon the dead animal, and feeds to his heart's content. 

 After eating until he can eat no more, he thinks of moving, but as he does not choose to take 

 the trouble of flying perpendicularly in so narrow a space, he prefers to walk out through the 

 door, and is straightway strangled by the ready noose. 



The Eagle is supposed to be a very long-lived bird, and is thought to compass a century of 

 existence when it is living wild and unrestrained in its native land. Even in captivity it has 

 been been known to attain a good old age, one of these birds which lived at Vienna being 

 rather more than a hundred years old when it died. 



So splendid and suggestive a bird as the Eagle could not escape the notice of any human 

 inluibitant of the same land, and we accordingly find that in all nations, even the most civilized 

 of the present day, an almost superstitious regard has attached itself to this bird. The Eagles 

 of ancient Rome and of modern monarchies and empires are familiar to all, and it is hardly 

 possible to pay a higher compliment to a poet or a warrior than to liken him to the royal Eagle. 



This genus, which includes the Golden Eagle, is almost peculiar to the Old World, where 

 about seventeen species are known, America having none exclusively its o^vn ; the single 

 species found here being identical with the European. The American bird varies somewhat 

 from the latter, being darker in plumage, and it is rather larger. 



Dr. Brewer says it breeds in the mountainous portions of Maine, New Hampshire, and 

 Vermont. Mr. Ridgeway found it common in the great Basin of the West, where the miners 

 caU it Mountain Eagle. 



The Imperial Eagle is an inhabitant of Asia and Southern Europe, and bears a rather 

 close resemblance to the golden Eagle, from which bird, however, it may be readOy distin- 

 guished by several notable i")eculiarities. 



The head and neck of this species are covered with lancet-shaped feathers of a deep fawn 

 color, each feather being edged with brown. The back and the whole of the upper parts are 

 black-bi'own, deeper on the back, and warming towards a chestnut tint on the shoulders. 

 Several of the scapularies are pure white, and the tail is ash-colored, bordered and tipped 

 with black. The cere and legs are yellow. The surest mark by which the Imperial may be 

 distinguished from the golden Eagle, is the white patch on the scapularies. Tliis is most dis- 

 tinct in the adidt bird ; for in tlie plumage of the young, the scapulary feathers are only 

 tipped with white, instead of being whoUy of that hue. 



