200 GOLDEN EAGLE. Class II. 



an eagle's nest, by robbing the eaglets of the 

 food the old ones brought, whose attendance he 

 protracted beyond the natural time, by clipping 

 the wings and retarding the flight of the former. 

 It is very unsafe to leave infants in places where 

 eagles frequent; there being instances in Scot- 

 land* of two being carried off by them, but for- 

 tunately, 



UljEsum unguibus haesit onus, 



the theft was discovered in time, and the child- 

 ren restored unhurt out of the eagles' nests, to 

 the affrighted parents. f In order to extirpate 

 these pernicious birds, there is a law in the 

 Orkney isles, which entitles any person that 

 kills an eagle to an hen out of every house in 

 the parish, in which it was killed. 



Eagles seem to give the preference to the 

 carcasses of dogs or cats. Persons, who make 

 it their business to kill these birds, lay that of 

 one or other by way of bait, and then conceal 

 themselves within gun-shot. They lire the in- 

 stant the eagle alights, for she that moment looks 

 about before she begins to prey. Yet quick as 

 her sight may be, her sense of hearing seems 



* Martins hist. West. Isles, 299. Sib. hist. Scot. 14. 



f Camden s Brit. i. 1474. The impression of an eagle and 

 child on the coin of the Isle of Man, was probably owing to some 

 accident of this kind. 



