THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 23 



the hope that the half-starved bird would alight thereon, and so be 

 a good omen for France ; but Eagles have wonderful ejes, and 

 tradition says this sagacious bird saw a butcher's shop in the distance 

 and shaped his course for the carcass of a recently slaughtered lauib, 

 young mutton being this species of eagle's particular weakness whea 

 allowed in freedom to cater for himself. I was in France at the\ 

 time, and know that the Prince had an eagle with him when he 

 landed, but I cannot say with a degree of certainty whetlier this 

 historical eagle made its first meal in the fair land of France off fat 

 pig or young mutton. 



The Golden Eagle, Aquila chri/saetus, is found in Great Britaia 



and other parts of Europe, also in the mountainous parts of North 



America and Asia ; its food consists chiefly of small quadrupeds, 



lambs, young deer, &c., and carrion when very hard pressed for food> 



In my young days I recollect hearing of one carrying off a child ia 



the Isle of Skye to its nest high upon a rocky cliff in the mountains, 



where it was found alive and safe by the son of a neighbouring' 



landed proprietor, who rescued it at great personal risk, and restoring' 



the highland baby to its mother's arms, was ever after almost 



worshipped by the surrounding peasantry ; and I doubt not some of 



you have read the tale of a young mother who had her first-bora 



carried off in a like manner by this king of birds, and who, with all 



the unquencliable fire of a mother's love at its height, followed her 



babe up the rocky mountain side, springing over cascades and caverns, 



and traversing the edge of precipices, never once halting or looking 



back until she once more clasped her offspring in her arms. 



■• This noble bird, the Golden Eagle, will measure at times as much 



as 7 feet in extent of wings, and 3^ from the beak to the extremity 



of the tail. I have lieard of them doing a little fishing on theii- 



own account, and I remember when I was a boy, one being shot 



near my home with a river trout -ilbs. weight in its inside. The 



other eagles met with in Britain are the greater Spotted Eagle^ 



(^Aquila clanga) the White-Tailed Eagle (HaU'cstus Albicilki)^ 



and the Osprey or Fishing Efigle, (Pandion Halicetus.') 



The Eagles of North America are the Whits-Headed (Falca- 

 Leucocephalus), the Osprey [Falco Halicetus), and the Golden, this 

 latter found most common in Western Canada. On the continent 

 of Europe there are no less than eleven species of Eagles met with 

 viz., the Golden, the Imperial, Bonelli's, the Greater Spotted, the 

 Spotted, the Tawny, the Booted, the White-Tailed, (this is, I 

 believe, the Jean le Blanc of the French), Pallas's Sea Eagle, the 

 Short-Toed, and the Fishing or Osprey. But of all quarters of the 

 world, India is the strongest in Eagles, having 18 well-known 

 found there, viz., the Imperial, Spotted, Tawny, Golden, Long- 

 Legged, Dwarf, Black, Crestless, Changeable, Crested, Spotted- 

 Hawk Eagle, Rufous, Common Serpent, Crested Serpent, Osprey, 



