226 CLASS AVES. 



Retired, like the lion, in some wilderness, he banishes every 

 other bird which might partake in his prey, and when two 

 pairs of the same species settle in a forest, they keep sufficiently 

 apart to find ample sustenance in the place they have chosen, 

 without interfering with each other. Even the colour, the form 

 of the talons, the terrific cry, the ferocity of character, the erect 

 and imposing attitude, in this bird, all serve to approximate 

 him to the first of quadrupeds. BufFon has added to these 

 qualities, the powerful odour of his breath ; but Spallanzani, 

 who kept one of these eagles tame for a long time, has ascer- 

 tained, by numerous trials, that the breath of this bird emits no 

 disagreeable effluvia whatever. 



Notwithstanding the want of docility in the great eagle, it 

 appears that he was formerly employed in the East for the 

 purposes of hunting. But he was found unfitted for falconry, 

 both by reason of his great weight and capricious and irritable 

 temper. Some people of the north, however, still train this 

 bird for the chase. The Kirguis, whose country is situated 

 eastward of the Caspian Sea, judge by certain marks of the 

 disposition of these eagles, and purchase from the Russians of 

 Samara, at a very great price, eaglets taken from the nest, to 

 train them to hunt the wolf, the fox, and the gazelle. 



The scent of this bird being feeble, he hunts only by sight. 

 Though he elevates himself in the air above all other birds, yet 

 he rises from the ground with difficulty, especially when over- 

 loaded, from the want of suppleness in his legs ; yet he can 

 carry off geese, cranes, hares, young lambs, and birds : it is 

 even pretended, that in Scotland children have been found in 

 his nest. When he attacks calves and fawns, he only satiates 

 himself on the spot with their flesh and blood, and carries off 

 the pieces to his eyrie. This nest, which is usually placed in 

 the clefts of rocks, lasts the eagle, it is said, during his life. It 

 is made with sticks of from five to six feet in length, crossed 

 by supple branches, and then covered with rushes and weeds, 

 and has no shelter but some projection of the rock. The 



