THE EAGLE. 23 



sesses in an eminent degree the faculty of vision : its eye is re- 

 markably keen and penetrating, although deep sunk and covered 

 by a projecting brow ; and the iris, being of a fine bright yellow, 

 shines with extraordinary lustre. Its general colour is a deep 

 brown, mixed with tawny on the head and neck. The tail is 

 black, and spotted with ash colour : the legs are yellow, and 

 feathered down to the toes ; and the claws are remarkably large, 

 the middle one being two inches in length. 



Eagles are seldom found but in mountainous and thinly peopled 

 countries, where they breed among the loftiest cliffs, and in the 

 places which are most remote from man. 



Of all the feathered race, the eagle soars to the greatest 

 height, and for this reason has obtained among the ancients the 

 appellation of the bird of Jupiter. As he has not much supple- 

 ness in the joints of his legs, he rises slowly from the ground ; 

 but his strength of wing is so great, that he is able to carry off 

 geese, hares, lambs, kids, and even infants themselves have fallen 

 victims to his rapacity ; a circumstance which might possibly 

 give rise to the fable of Ganymede. An instance is recorded of 

 two children in Scotland having been carried off by two eagles, 

 which being discovered and pursued, had only time to lodge 

 them in their nest before they were overtaken; and by that 

 means, the two little innocents were restored to their terrified 

 parents without having received any harm. 



Smith, in his History of the County of Kerry, relates, that 

 during a summer when the scarcity of provisions amounted almost 

 to a famine, a poor man got a comfortable subsistence for his 

 family out of an eagle's nest, by regularly robbing the young 

 eagles of part of the food provided for them by the old ones ; 

 having luckily hit on the expedient of protracting their assiduity 

 beyond the usual time, by clipping the wings, and thus retarding 

 the flight of the young, and having perhaps still more luckily 

 escaped being surprised by the old ones in committing those de- 

 predations on their premises. How fatal the consequences of 

 such a surprise might have been, may be easily conjectured, from 

 a circumstance which happened some years ago in the same 

 county. A peasant resolved to rob the nest of an eagle that 

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

 therefore stripped and swam to the island, while the old ones 

 were absent. Having robbed the nest of its young, he was ore- 

 paring to swim back with the eaglets tied in a string; but w^en 

 he was up to his chin in the water, the old eagles returned, fell 

 upon the plunderer, and in spite of his resistance, never desisted 

 until they despatched him with their beaks and their claws. 



The eagle is certainly at all times a formidable neighbour, 

 but particularly when bringing up its young. It is then that 



