122 THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GLIDE. 



one of the general provisions of nature, that the most 

 powerful destroyers of living animals should have 

 their favorite haunts in the most lonely places ; and 

 in this the Lion, the most powerful of quadrupeds, 

 and the Eayle, the most vigorous of birds, completely 

 agree. There is, however, a wonderful difference in 

 the distances at which they can discover their prey : 

 the Lion springs only a few yards, while the Eagle 

 darts down from the mid-heaven, in one perpen- 

 dicular and accelerating stoop." After this follows 

 the regular history of the bud. 



Our author is a follower of Izaak Walton, and 

 as the question concerning the cruelty of angling 

 has lately been very much agitated, we shall let our 

 author speak at length : — " Those who carry senti- 

 ment into nature, condemn angling as a cruel sport, 

 though anglers, from the time of Izaak Walton, 

 and probably from long before that, have been pro- 

 verbially a kind-hearted and poetic class of men, — 

 models of mildness, as compared with any other 

 sportsmen. A man who is amid the beauties of 

 nature in calm and silent contemplation, or intent 

 only upon the capture of a trout, is in a situation 

 the very best calculated for forgetting animosity, and 

 cherishing kindness and good-will for all mankind ; 

 and any means by which that frame of mind can be 

 ensured, are cheaply purchased at the expense of 

 any quantity of mere spoken sentiment, — more 

 especially of that very questionable kind, which is 

 just as forward to batten upon the fish, as to condemn 

 the angler. 



