200 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 



hold of the most slippery: so that the Eagle on her two feet 

 seems as firmly based as most quadrupeds do on four. The 

 hold which she thus takes of the surface, and the powerful 

 action of the muscles that move the toes, give her another 

 advantage; for by those combined powers, she can throw 

 herself with a bound into the air, at the same time that she 

 expands her wings, and thus, contrary to the vulgar belief, 

 rear usually from level ground. When, however, the Eagle 

 has been feeding in any other place than near her abode, 

 she shows an unwillingness to rise. As she is so constituted 

 as to be able to bear hunger four or five weeks, her feeding 

 is voracious in proportion; and as, notwithstanding that she 

 shows considerable adroitness in plucking birds, and skin- 

 ning quadrupeds, she always swallows, more or less, of the 

 indigestible exuvias, as well as the bones of the smaller prey, 

 her meal is heavy. This, in all probability, has given rise 

 to the vulgar opinion. 



The following description of the adult female, given in 

 Selby's admirable work on "British Ornithology," is accu- 

 rate: — Bill bluish at the base, the tip black. Cere, (the 

 naked skin at the base of the bill,) lemon-yellow. Irides, 

 orange-brown. Primary quills, black, the secondary ones, 

 clouded with hair-brown, broccoli-brown, and umber- 

 brown. Crown of the head, and nape of the neck, pale 

 orange-brown; the feathers occasionally marginated with 

 white, narrow, elongated, and distinct. Chin and throat, 

 dark umbei'-brown. Vent, pale reddish brown. Tail, pale 

 broccoli-brown, barred with blackish brown, and ending in 

 a broad band of the same colour. Tarsi, clothed with pale 

 reddish-brown feathers. Toes naked, yellow. Claws black, 

 very strong, and much hooked. 



In the young bird, the irides of the eyes are not so yel- 

 low; the back and coverts of the wings are of a deeper 

 brown; there are some white feathers on the breast and 

 belly; the inside of the thighs are white; the feathers on 

 the tarsi, white; the feathers of the wings, white at their 

 bases; and the tail, white, for a part of its length from the 

 root, which becomes less at each successive moulting. 

 These distinctions diminish till the fourth year, when the 

 bird arrives at its full size; they are then lost, and the age 

 cannot be known for a number of years. The story that is 

 usually told about the Eagle renewing her age, is of course 

 without foundation, though it probably relates to the moult- 

 ino- or change of the feathers, which happens to the Eagle 

 as well as to other birds. 



Though the Golden Eagle, as found in England, be per- 

 fectly untameable, there is a constant sexual attachment in 

 the race. The greater number of other birds pair only 

 during the breeding season, and become indifferent to each 

 other after the young can subsist by themselves; but the 

 nuptials of the Eagle are for life. After a male and female 



have paired, they never separate, or change their abode, 

 and rear all their successive broods in the same nest, which 

 being made of strong twigs five or six feet long, firmly wat- 

 tled and placed in some fissure or hollow of an abrupt rock, 

 is supposed to last for centuries with only additional repairs. 

 The pair, though they drive off their young, and, indeed, 

 every creature but man, whose haunts they shun, are closely 

 associated together: when the one is seen for any length of 

 time, the other is sure not to be far distant; and the one 

 may often be seen fl3'ing low and beating the bushes, while 

 the other floats high in air, in order to pounce upon the 

 frightened prey. 



The time that they live, has not been accurately ascer- 

 tained ; but their longevity must be very great. In their 

 strength they are proof against the elements, for the strong- 

 est gale does not much impede their motion; and their 

 powers of endurance enable them to sustain very great 

 casualties in respect of food. In many parts of Scotland, 

 where they are much more numerous than in England, 

 there are pairs that have nestled in the same cliffs, beyond 

 the memory of the inhabitants. One of these places is 

 Lochlee, at the head of the North Esk in Forfarshire. That 

 lake lies in a singular basin, between perpendicular cliffs on 

 the north, and high and precipitous mountains on the south. 

 A pair of Eagles inhabit each side, so that three may some- 

 times be seen floating in the air at once; but those that have 

 their abode in the inaccessible cliffs on the north, seem to 

 be lords of the place, as the south ones do not venture to 

 beat the valley while these are on the wing. Nor is it in 

 their native freedom only that Eagles attain a great age; 

 for there was one kept in a state of confinement at Vienna 

 for one hundred and four years. 



The female laj's usually two eggs, which are supposed to 

 produce a male and a female; sometimes she laj^s only one, 

 and very rarely three. The eggs are of a dirty-white colour 

 with reddish spots. The young are produced after thirty 

 days' incubation. When they come out of the shell, they 

 are covered with a white down; and their first feathers are 

 of a pale 3'el!ow. They are exceedingly voracious; and the 

 old ones, though they drive them from the eyrie as soon as 

 they are able to shift for themselves, arc, up to that period, 

 equally assiduous in finding them food, and bold in defend- 

 ing them from attack. The vicinity of an Eagle's nest is 

 usually indeed a scene of blood, as the prey, if not killed 

 by the blow of the wing or the ckitch of the talons, is car- 

 ried to the ledge that contains the nest, and despatched 

 there. 



Of the boldness of the Eagles at that time, many stories 

 are told; and they are so universal, that there must be some 

 foundation for them. When the old ones are at the nest, 

 the boldest fowler dares not approach it, as one flap of the 



