EAGLES 331 



the motion of a wing or the tremor of a feather ? 

 I do not know who would wish to bring to a close 

 so joyous and space-annihilating a life as this. 

 The specimens at which one gazes through the 

 great barred cages in the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens always fill me with the deepest com- 

 miseration : I pass their narrow lodging with 

 hastening steps, wondering vaguely what the 

 inmates" feehngs would be did they but reaUse 

 one tithe of the grandeur of the life they have 

 missed. 



The tliree eagles I have mentioned are, I 

 think, the largest, most powerftil, and most 

 impressive among Zambezian birds of prey. 

 Opinions differ as to which may have the most 

 claim to be regarded as the handsomest among 

 them, bat my own bias is all in favour of the 

 highly ornamental, if somewhat gaily marked, 

 loud-voiced fishing eagle. The head, neck, 

 breast and shoulders of this fine example are 

 of snowy white, forming a dazzling contrast to 

 the sombre chocolate brown and black of the 

 remainder of his colour scheme. I once possessed 

 one of these birds, which was presented to me 

 by a (ierman friend, ha^nng, from some cause or 

 other, sustained a fractured wing. This bird — 

 a female — ^became very tame, and, when once 

 her passionate interest had been successfully 

 divorced from my fowl-run, could be trusted 

 practically without supervision in the gardens. 

 One day I heard this eagle giving tongue in a 

 state of extraordinary excitement. Her piercing, 

 indescribable cries rang through the premises 



