154 WILD LIFE IN CHINA. 



winking owls being mobbed, for example, by all the little 

 feathered termagants of the neighbourhood; or a well-fed 

 hawk permitting his otherwise easy prey to pester him with 

 impunity. In Scotland they think there is another reason for 

 the well known complaisance of the golden eagle. That 

 complaisance is shown only in the neighbourhood of his 

 home. There the law of the jungle forbids destruction, and 

 that in the ill-bredcrows and sparrows, for example has 

 the result usually attributed to familiarity. If you want to 

 understand this thoroughly, you should make a study of the 

 laws, customs, traditions and jurisprudence of wild life as 

 laid down in the inspired works of the creator of Mowgli, 

 Mr. Rudyard Kipling. Yet even eagles make occasional 

 mistakes. Those who live on fish, for instance, now and 

 then grasp at more than they can carry, and instead of 

 emerging with exultant screams, prey in talons, are dragged 

 beneath the surface to a watery death. Or such dubious 

 creatures as the stoat, or polecat, or even the domestic cat 

 at times, are seized in such a way as to allow free play to 

 the weapons which they, as well as their assailant, possess. 

 Not a few instances of eagles meeting their doom thus are 

 on record. But as a rule the natural weapons of a full 

 grown eagle are enough to ensure the instant death of any 

 quarry which it attacks. With an extreme weight of 

 18 pounds, the blow from a swiftly descending eagle's body 

 is sufficient to send its largest winged prey, the swan, for 

 instance, dead to the ground without a touch of the talons. 

 The beak is never used in killing. When the talons are, 

 they are, as a rule, amply sufficient, for, in good sooth, what 

 are they but eight sharp-pointed spears inserted just where 

 experience has shown the vitals to be, and when they attain 

 a length of three inches, as the centre talon of the eagle 

 does, one or two of the eight are pretty sure to get home. 

 All that is necessary to drive them in to their extreme length 

 is a bending down of the body as though in the act of 

 grasping a perch. The action of the talons is purely automatic 

 under those circumstances. Once I shot a hawk which I 

 wanted as a specimen. He was resting on a branch 

 all unaware of the murderer close at hand. Being killed 

 instantaneously, all the change that appeared after the shot 

 was an inversion of position. The bird was hanging head 

 downward from the branch instead of being seated upon it, 

 the claw grasp remaining as in life. 



China is well patronized by eagles of one sort andanother. 

 Amongst the sea-eagles, one of the finest isHaliaetiisalbicilla, 

 the white-tailed eagle, the female of which reaches a length 

 of some thirty-eight inches, the male, as is usual in this family, 

 being somewhat smaller. Some of the fish-eagles confine 



