THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 249 



strength, incessantly occupied in combating reptiles, with 

 one blow of its wing stuns a tortoise or a threatening 

 serpent. The swan can break a man's leg. The bearded 

 vulture, some zoologists tell us, sometimes attacks the 

 hunters in the dangerous passes of the Alps. And the 

 eagle in its bold flight carries children through the fields 

 of air, and crushes them in the mountain precipices. ^ 



If we examine the form which our Avinged architects 

 give to their nuptial couches, or the materials of which 

 they build them, we see that they vary infinitely. Some 

 birds, like the eagles and goshawks, which build their 



^ Although in our days the carrying off of Ganymede ia not re-enacted, yet the 

 inhabitants of mountainous countries have some ground for accusing the eagles 

 of hearing off their children. The last known fact of this kind took place in the 

 Valais in 1838. A little girl, five years old, called Marie Delex, -was playing with 

 one of her companions on a mossy slope of the mountain, when all at once an 

 eagle swooped down upon her and carried her away in spite of the cries and pre- 

 sence of her young friend. Some peasants, hearing the screams, hastened to the 

 spot, but sought in vain for the child, for they found nothing but one of her 

 shoes on the edge of a precipice. The child, however, was not carried to the 

 eagle's nest, where only two eaglets were seen, surrounded by heaps of goat and 

 sheep bones. It was not till two months after this that a shepherd discovered 

 the corpse of Marie Delex, frightfully mutilated, and lying \ipon a rock half a 

 league from where she had been borne off. 



[An instance of this kind, which occurred in the autumn of 1868, is thus narrated 

 by a teacher in county Tippah, Missouri, United States of North America: — 

 "A sad casualty occurred at my school a few days ago. The eagles have bee;i 

 very troublesome in the neighbourhood for some time past, carrying off pigs, 

 lambs, &c. No one thought that they would attempt to prey upon children ; 

 but on Thursday, at recess, the little boys were out some distance from the 

 house, playing marbles, when their sport was interrupted by a large eagle sweep- 

 ing down and picking up little .Jemmie Kenney, a boy of eight years, and flying 

 away with him. The children cried out, and when I got out of the house, the 

 eagle was so high that I could just hear the child screaming. The alarm was 

 given, and from screaming and shouting in the air, &c., the eagle was induced to 

 drop his victim ; but his talons had been buried in him so deeply, and the fall 

 was so great, that he was killed — or either would have been fatal." — Tr.] 



The Gypfetus, the boldest of the vultures, and of such immensely strong flight, 

 is said to assail men who are asleep. One of our zoologists, too, M. Hollard, 

 states that this daring bird is not afraid to attack hunters in the dangerous passes 

 of the Alps. — Hollard, Zoologie, Paris, 18.38, p. 432. 



