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THE CtOLDEN eagle. 



Aquila chrysseta. Briss. 



" Not one fowler in fifty thousand has in all his da3^s 

 shot an eagle." Thus pyrites Christopher North in his 

 "Eecreations;" and he is right in his assertion. Verily 

 it seems impossible for such a deed to be of common 

 occurrence. The truly royal bird, Jove's eagle, is not 

 to be slain like a mere fowl of the air : he whom we 

 hardly ever see otherwise than thousands of feet above 

 our earth, moving tranquilly in highest heaven. Above 

 him no living thing can soar ; between him and the 

 sun there is nothing but that " beyond " which we 

 know of only as " space " and " ether." There he 

 hangs suspended, resting on his mighty pinions, even 

 as the gold of the sunlight drops down and rests on 

 them. And from such confounding height, yonder in 

 that region of unbroken solitude, he gazes on the world. 

 His piercing vision reaches even hitherward : with a 

 power of sight almost preternatural, he scans the 

 movements of all that live below. Like a prophet or 



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