THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 149 



times attains an extent of three or four inches measured 

 along its curve. In its attitudes the bird is generally 

 considered peculiarly majestic, its powerful grasp ena- 

 bling it to perch itself in a bold upright posture, with 

 its wings closely pressed to its sides, its neck elevated 

 to the plane of its back, and its breast thrown boldly 

 forwards. 



The Golden Eagles build on all the mountain chains 

 of Europe, Asia Minor, Tartary, Siberia, and the IN^orth 

 of Africa, and in the northern regions of America. In 

 Europe they are most abundant in Russia, Sweden, 

 Scotland, the Tyrolese and Swiss Alps, and the Pyre- 

 nees. Their nest forms a solid platform, of several feet 

 in width, built of sticks and branches of trees, interlaced 

 with smaller twigs, and covered with layers of reeds or 

 heath. The female seldom lays more than two or three 

 eggs, of a dirty white spotted with red. Their food 

 consists almost solely of living victims ; and foxes, 

 lambs, fawns, and birds of various kinds, form their 

 most usual prey. It has been said that they sometimes 

 carry off infants ; and Anderson asserts that in Iceland 

 they have been known even to seize upon children of 

 four or five years old : but there seems to be great 

 exaggeration, or rather much of positive invention, in 

 all the stories of this description with which we have 

 met. They sometimes attain a very great age. Klein 

 mentions one that died at Vienna in 1719, after having 

 been confined there for upwards of a century. It is 

 possible, however, that in this instance the naturalist 

 may have been deceived by the keeper of the Mena- 

 gerie, for it appears to be the general practice in such 

 cases to continue to each succeeding animal of a species 

 all the honours of its predecessor, and thus to perpe- 

 tuate its existence through many generations. Still 



