66 THE INFANCY OF ANIMALS 



times a day he would stand erect, with his legs well apart, 

 and flap his wings vigorously and continuously for some 

 seconds, and this exercise was repeated daily for nearly 

 two months. Then, one morning, the mother came 

 swirling down from the blue bearing the hind-quarters 

 of a young rabbit for his breakfast. Settling on the far 

 side of the great nest she flapped her wings repeatedly, as 

 if giving him a flying lesson. 



" The eaglet," he says, " now ravenous, seemed to grasp 

 her meaning, and for the first time I saw him on the wing. 

 For one brief second he flew clumsily towards her, then 

 lit on his feet again at her side. . . ." Then came the 

 end of this most wonderful vigil. " For a week or more 

 a heaving mist hung around the eagle's home, but at 

 last there came a night when the white veil was swept 

 from the hiUs by a wild gale from the north. At midnight 

 the moon peered through a rift in the clouds, and, hoping 

 for the best, I started again for the eyrie at daybreak. 

 Like a red ball of fire the sun leaped up in the east, and 

 the tops of the distant mountains gleamed in its rays, 

 clad thinly in a white garb of mist. The nest was empty 

 when I arrived, and for a moment I feared that the young 

 eagle had gone. A brief search, however, discovered him 

 on the edge of the cliff close to my hiding-place, and the 

 young eagle, now suspicious of any sound, flapped back 

 slowly into the nest. A red dawn spells rain, and sure 

 enough, before an hour had passed the sky became darkened 

 and a steady downpour began once more. 



" The hours passed slowly, and the eaglet stood beneath 

 the ledge which had sheltered him from so many storms 

 throughout the summer months. At length he stepped 

 forward to the edge of the cliff and gazed intently upwards, 

 at the same time uttering the low cheeping note with 



