34 LONGEVITY OF THE EAGLE: 
present of it, but what its age was when the latter 
received it from Ireland is unknown.* Another, that died 
at Vienna, was stated to have lived in confinement one 
hundred and four years.t A white-tailed eagle cap- 
tured in Caithness, died at Duff House in February, 
1862, having been kept in confinement, by the late Earl 
of Fife, for thirty-two years. But even the eagle may 
be outlived. Apemantus asks of Timon :— 
“Will these moss’d trees, 
That have outliv’d the eagle, page thy heels, 
And skip when thou point’st out ?” 
Timon of Athens, Act. iv. Sc. 3. 
The old text has “moyst trees.’ The emendation, 
however, which was made by Hanmer, is strengthened 
by the line in As You Like Jt (Act iv. Sc. 3) -— 
“ Under an oak, whose boughs were moss’d with age.” 
In an old French “riddle-book,” entitled “ Demands 
Joyous,” which was printed in English by Wynkyn de 
Worde in 1511 (a single copy only of which is said to be 
extant), is the following curious “demande” and “re- 
sponse.” It is here transcribed, as bearing upon the sub- 
ject of the age of an eagle :— 
“ Dem, What is the age of a field-mouse ? 
Res. A year. And the life of a hedge-hog is three 
* Pennant, ‘‘ British Zoology.” t Yarrell, ‘‘ History of British Birds.” 
