178 FOREST CEEATURES. 



Such circumstance therefore would be not the rule, but 

 the exception. Now and then two may be found, but 

 never three. This accounts for their rarity, alluded to also 

 in the '* Kecreations." " Poietes ought to have kno^vii 

 that there are not "many of these animals in any country. 

 Eagles are proud — apt to hold their heads very high 

 — and to make themselves scarce. A great many 

 eagles all flying about together would look most absurd. 

 They are aware of that, and fly in ^ ones and twos ' — 

 a couple perhaps to a county." 



We have seen that even when the parents have to 

 feed but one fledgeling he must fast sometimes twenty- 

 four hours. Were there a nestful there would be still 

 more difficulty in feeding them, and they might starve ; 

 as the ration that was sufficient for one would not 

 afford nourishment when divided among three. Here 

 again, as in every other instance when thoroughly ex- 

 amined and rightly understood, we see the wisdom of 

 Grod's ordinances, and what perfection of arrangement 

 exists throughout the whole economy of nature. 



The inaccessible steeps on which eagles build their 

 eyrie, the height to which they soar, often rising quite 

 out of sight ; their keen vision, their caution, and espe- 

 cially their avoidance of all neighbourhood with the low- 

 lands where men have their dwelling : all these causes 

 together make it of rare occurrence to get a shot at an 

 ■eagle. Yet there are some favoured mortals to whom 



